Baghdad, Iraq
Over the past few days temperatures have continued to rise and beyond even the typically sweltering levels of the Middle East Desert. Today marked the hottest day of the year so far with readings in both Iraq and neighbouring Iran topping 126°.
The hottest place appears to have been Omidieh, Iran with 126°F (52.4C), Abadan, Iran hit 126°F (51.6C) while Al Basrah in southern Iraq hit 126°F (51.4C).
Why the hottest of the hot?
Thanks to the arid, and vast expanse of the Middle East Deserts, upper level ridging is the strongest anywhere on earth with heights reaching around 600dm. These heights are achievable with literally no moisture in the atmosphere for some of the sun’s blistering rays to be taken up by and that means the scalding desert simply radiates the maximum solar radiation directly into heating the air above. The desert and arid atmosphere work hand in hand and at times, we see a strongest than normal high like we’re seeing now. 850mb temperatures are around 36C, very impressive and this constitudes surface reaching widely over 120°.
The Iraqi capital, Baghdad topped 120° both yesterday and today and the next several days look just as scorching if not even hotter. Kuwait City likewise reached 120° along with countless other cities stretching from northern Saudi to Iraq, Syria and Iran.
Below is a look at the ECMWF upper chart and 850 temps for tomorrow and Sunday and if you ask me, it looks even hotter than today. The pink shows 36C 85 temps and the bright pink may be nearer 40C!
All-time records are and will be threatened over the next few days and it wouldn’t surprise me if we see somewhere near 130°F.
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