Dubai: The official start of the summer will fall on June 21 and with it temperatures are expected to become slightly higher by one to two degrees Celsius in the UAE.
The summer solstice in the UAE falls on Friday at 7.54pm, which is when the sun’s rays fall perpendicularly on the earth’s Tropic of Cancer at 23.5 degrees north latitude.
In terms of daylight, this means that June 21 is also the longest day of the year and three hours, nine minutes longer than the winter solstice. On the shortest day of the year, the sun rises at 5.29 am and sets at 7.11 pm.
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What is a solstice?
The word solstice is derived from two Latin words: sol (sun) and sistere (to be still). A solstice can be defined as an event when the sun is at its highest or lowest point in the sky. This happens twice a year, and the occurrence of the summer and winter solstices marks the longest and shortest two days of the year, respectively.
Record temperatures
The weather on Wednesday and Thursday will be partly hazy and cloudy, especially over eastern areas by the afternoon. Moderate to strong northwesterly winds will cause dust and sand to blow over exposed areas, with a speed of 20 to 30 km/h, reaching 50 km/h at times. Temperatures will slightly drop by a couple of degrees before rising once again at the end of the week.
The sea will be rough in the Arabian Gulf and moderate to rough at times in the Oman Sea.
According to records provided by the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM), the average temperature in June ranges between 33 °C and 35.1 °C, while the highest average temperature is between 39.7 °C and 42.2 °C.
The highest temperature ever recorded in June was 52.2 °C at Al Yasat in 2010, and the lowest temperature was Raknah at 14.1 °C in 2004.
The average level of humidity during the month of June was at 42 per cent, with the highest range between 62 to 87 per cent and the lowest between 14 to 27 per cent.
The most amount of fog, according to the NCM, happened in June 2014 with eight days of mist and eight days of heavy fog.
