Light-to-moderate rains hit UAE on Friday; sunshine seen on Saturday

Dubai: Residents woke to overcast skies and light-to-moderate rain in coastal areas such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah on Friday morning.

Showers started pouring over Abu Dhabi, Al Bateen, Dubai, and Sharjah at around 8am Friday, according to the UAE Met Office.

Ajman received its own light showers at 4am while Al Qalaa, Dalma and Al Jazeera had light rain at 1am.

Ghayathi and Jebel Dhanna on the other hand received moderate rain.

The National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) warned the public that unstable weather is affecting most areas of the country, resulting different intensities of rain, fresh to strong winds, and rough to very rough seas on Friday.

* Check the Gulf News 10-day weather forecast here

Heading out to sea for a swim is discouraged as wave height onshore could reach up to 3ft to 6ft while offshore could reach 8ft to 12ft in the Arabian Gulf.

The Oman Sea will be roughly the same with minimum wave height of 2ft to 4ft but reaching a maximum 6ft onshore and 8ft to 12ft offshore.

The weather instability is due to an extension of a low pressure in the surface and trough in the upper air.

But this case is likely to weaken and decay on Friday night until Saturday, a forecaster told Gulf News.

Based on the satellite monitoring on the NCMS’ website, the rain clouds are covering the whole coastal areas of the UAE from the western tip in Al Sila to Al Ruwais, to the cities of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, and Ajman.

As of 8am, the clouds are packed with rainwater enough to give a drizzle to light rain, and possibly moderate rain if the clouds further develops during the day.

Strong winds that kick up dust are expected where there is cloud activity especially for towering or rain clouds, resulting in reduced visibility.

Ras Al Khaimah’s visibility went down to 2,000 metres at 2am Friday.

The good news, however, is with this wet weather, temperatures are expected to drop by 6C to 8C bringing the average temperatures to 25C to 35C.