Week starts wet, country gets rain season’s first drops

AMMAN — The Kingdom on Sunday night received its first drops of the wet season, according to meteorologists, who said that the precipitation “bodes well for a favourable rainy season”.

A state of unstable weather conditions that started affecting the country on Saturday brought scattered rain starting Sunday morning to the southern part of the country, according to Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD) Director General Hussein Momani, who noted that rain spread to parts of the central and northern region later on Sunday.

“The amount of rain varied between slight and moderate, depending on the area,” Momani said, forecasting the impact of the unstable weather condition, including dust and rain, to prevail until Wednesday.

Head of the Weather Forecasting Department at the JMD Raed Rafed said that the fact that rain, which was in good amounts in several parts of the country, arrived early this year provides promising signals in terms of the performance of the wet season.

Jordan usually receives its first drops of rain in September, Rafed said, indicating that this has not been the case regularly over the past years. He noted that some parts, in the desert particularly, would receive rain, but not the whole country.

“There is a saying amongst farmers that the last days of September in Jordan are always wet. We are happy that it is the case this year,” Rafed told The Jordan Times.

The rainy season in Jordan usually starts late September or early October and ends on May 10th, which coincides with the end of the khamsini annual weather phenomenon, during which the country witnesses dusty weather and unstable weather conditions that bring rain.

Figures from JMD’s climate department, made available to The Jordan Times, indicate that the earliest precipitation in a wet season in Jordan occurred on September 4, 1969 in Irbid Governorate.

Last year, the figures show, the country received minimal rain in the south of Azraq and in the area of the Queen Alia International Airport, while in 2016, no rain was recorded in September.