More rain, dusty weather forecast Tuesday, to ease off Wednesday night

AMMAN — Dusty weather conditions are forecast to continue affecting the Kingdom on Tuesday, especially in the eastern and southeastern regions, with a chance of showers between the afternoon and the beginning of the evening, a forecaster said Monday.

“Ruweished on Monday witnessed a sandstorm that reduced visibility to only 200 metres, and registered 1 millimetre of rainfall,” said Raed Al Khattab, head of the Jordan Metrological Department’s (JMD) weather forecasting section.

Starting from Tuesday, visibility in the eastern and southeastern regions will be better than the previous two days, reaching 1,000 metres during daytime, and up to four kilometres at night, he told The Jordan Times over the phone.

“On Tuesday, winds will be southwesterly to northwesterly moderate to brisk in the afternoon, with temperatures in Amman forecast to reach a high of 40°C during the day and drop to a low of 29°C at night,” Khattab noted.

The weatherman said mercury levels in Aqaba during the day will reach a high of 45°C, and winds will be northerly moderate with calm seas.

It will be generally hot across the Kingdom on Wednesday, with the formation of medium- and high-altitude clouds, and a chance of showers in the eastern and southern regions, he added.

“Dust and light showers are expected in the eastern and southern parts of the Kingdom during the day, with dust starting to ease off as of Wednesday night,” Khattab said, noting that the temperature in Amman will range between 39°C and 27°C at night.

He added that on Thursday, it will be relatively hot in hilly areas and hot in other parts of the country, with northwesterly moderate to brisk winds.

Mercury levels in Amman will mark a high of 36°C, three to four degrees above the annual average for this time of the year, and a low of 24°C, while in Aqaba it will be hot at 42°C, the forecaster added.

Flights back to normal

Corporate Communications Director at the Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) Zahiah Naasan said operations in the airport were back to normal on Monday, without registering any flight delays or diversions.

“On Sunday, a total of eight planes were diverted to neighbouring countries during a sandstorm that hit the airport,” Naasan said, noting that these airplanes started coming back to QAIA at 7:30pm, the last of which arrived in Amman by 8:50pm.

She told The Jordan Times that there were 17 delays for departing flights and 11 delays for arriving planes, due to the sandstorm.

“Three Royal Jordanian [RJ] airplanes, which were diverted to other neighbouring airports on Sunday due to low visibility on the airport’s runway, came back to Amman within two-and-a-half hours,” RJ Spokesperson Basel Kilani said, adding that delays on Sunday did not exceed two hours.

One plane, which was coming from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, landed at the King Hussein International Airport in Aqaba, and the other two — from Chicago and Istanbul — landed in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, he noted.

Kilani said RJ flights on Monday were on schedule without registering any delays and diversions.