Oman coolest in GCC

Muscat : Oman is officially the coolest country in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), at least when it comes to weather.

While global weather models are forecasting continuing hot temperatures in the rest of the GCC countries, Oman is currently enjoying temperatures hovering around the 35 degrees Celsius mark.

The not-so-cool rest of the GCC will be sweating through temperatures of above 44 degrees Celsius in the coming days. According to www.weather.com, temperatures in Muscat for the next 10 days will range between 34 and 36 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, in Kuwait City, they will remain between 46 and 48 degrees, in Doha between 40 and 42 and in Manama between 40 and 44. The mercury in Damman in Saudi Arabia will remain between 43 and 45, in Dubai it will be between 41 and 44.

Rain in Salalah

Bader Ali Al Baddaei, an administrator of www.rthmc.net, a local web-based forum that discusses weather in Oman, said that between May and September, the southern Dhofar region has its own microclimate.

Known as khareef, the area catches the Indian Ocean’s monsoon season and temperatures can be 10 to 15 degrees Celsius lower than the rest of the country. Other than in Dhofar, it is rare to see rain between May and November.

In its latest report, the Oman Meteorology Department has predicted cloudy skies over coastal areas of the Dhofar Governorate and adjoining mountains with intermittent drizzle.

“Mainly clear skies over the rest of the Sultanate, with chances of medium and high cloud advection over most of the Sultanate and chances of convective clouds development and isolated rain and occasional thundershowers over the Al-Hajar Mountains and adjacent wilayats during the afternoon,” the report added. Jason Nicholls, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, had predicted storms in Oman from Wednesday onwards, citing various weather models.