Persian Gulf area rain

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

Masirah Island (Oman) recorded 472 mm in just a few days

I know Masirah well from my Air Force days. That is an astonishing rain total. That is more than twice my miserable total here (near Nairn) of 213 mm so far this year. The world's climate really is changing and very rapidly.

Jack

[Graham Easterling]

I agree Jack, the climate does seem to be changing more dramatically. Up until recently my records, very similar to Len's up in Devon, have been showing a gradual warming, and a gradual increase in winter rainfall. But at the same time, generally less in the way of severe storms than in the '90s. However, now signs of things becoming rather more dramatic.

The recent heatwave in the south of the UK was astounding for a number of reasons. Not just breaking temperature records but completely shattering them. 

In Penzance the May temperature record was broken by around 4C, but it's Camborne that really got my attention, hardly noted as a particularly warm location, even by maritime Cornwall standards. The MetO site rather renouned locally for being a particularly cool spot very prone to a sea breeze. It recorded a minimum temperature of 21.3C last week, only just beaten on mainland UK by somewhere in Kent. It also topped 30C, in the far SW, in May, without any sea breeze!  The 'always cooler on coasts' mantra during heatwaves may need to be reconsidered.

That followed the huge amount of damage done in west Cornwall by the well >100mph gusts of Storm Goretti. The only comparable gale (as opposed to sea state) in living memory in the west of Cornwall was back in 1979 when 118mph was recorded at Gwennap Head . Goretti changed the landscape between Penzance & Marazion, with entire copses of trees decimated, many, many buildings severely damaged & yet to be repaired. 

And, of, course it was wet.

Eventful times.

Graham

Penzance 

[Keith (Southend)]

Hi Jack,

when was this, I can't seem to see rainfall in the synops on OGIMET?

Keith (Southend)

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

I now have complete distrust in these reports.

I was initially drawn to some amazing totals here:

https://www.eldoradoweather.com/climate/world-extremes/world-temp-rainfall-extremes.php

But that site is now not reporting.

I Googled and came up with that 472 mm for Masirah and other places in the region.  Google mentioned that the Indian Monsoon was much farther west than usual.

Certainly when I was in the area in 1965 to 1967, there was a rogue depression and the desert did indeed briefly turn green.

I don't believe the latest data.  Software glitch, picked up by Google and repeated.

Jack

[Freddie]

Record rainfall for Masirah is 431 mm in a day in 1977.  More recently (March) there was heavy rain giving 292 mm - but that was over a 7-day period (https://instagram.com/p/DWV5uynD6GW/).  There were also floods in 2024 around that time of year - but that is from memory.

[Keith (Southend)]

The two places I worked briefly in Oman about 20 years ago was Muscat and Khasab and also spent a day at the radar site up Jebal Shams (3009m). It was August the valley at Khasab was like a sauna. I though Oman was a lovely place. On another occasion a colleague, who I still have contact with, was swept into a flash flood in the car they were in in, fortunately they got pulled to rescue.

Keith (Southend)

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

I don't have Instagram, nor Facebook, Twitter or most of these social media sites.  Too many doing much the same thing.

Are there any high-resolution satellite images showing the [presumed] recent greening of the desert?

Jack

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

Online again:

https://www.eldoradoweather.com/climate/world-extremes/world-temp-rainfall-extremes.php

And still reporting high rainfall in the area.

Jack

[Freddie]

You don't need to have an account with Instagram to view posts.

[Freddie]

I've looked at the satellite sequences since the 2nd and there is no indication of any rain-bearing clouds on each of the 4 days.  In fact, there's hardly been any cloud.

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

"You don't need to have an account with Instagram to view posts."

I tried, but there seemed to be security and privacy hoops to jump through.  Too much hassle for what should be a simple link.

Jack

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

Can this be true?  In the Sahara.

Jack

[Metman2012]

I've also looked in Ogimet for that report and some of the others, both synops and the daily reports - no rain reported at all. No idea where they are getting the data from. One max temp is correct, I haven't checked others.

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

Software glitch, presumably.

Jack