Temperatures are below zero in Jebel Jais… and “the cold will break on Sunday”

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Astronomy Society and member of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences, Ibrahim Al Jarwan, expected that temperatures would continue to drop significantly until Saturday, while the temperature at the top of Jebel Jais would be below zero degrees Celsius at dawn, indicating that the cold wave would break on Sunday.

Regarding the causes of the extreme cold during the current days, Al-Jarwan told Emirates Al-Youm that it is due to the activity of the “coffin winds”, which cause temperatures to drop throughout the country. They are cold northern/northeasterly winds, blowing from the direction of the stars of the “coffin daughters”, originating deep in the Asian plateau, which witnesses very low temperatures.

Al-Jarwan pointed out that the temperatures during the day did not exceed 20 degrees Celsius in most cities, and did not exceed 10 degrees Celsius at heights that reach 1,200 metres, while at the summit of Jebel Jais (1,900 metres), it was below five degrees most of the day.

He explained that, however, the perceived temperature is minus 5.5 degrees Celsius, which expresses the extent to which a person feels cold, due to wind or humidity, and does not express the cooling of surfaces or the actual temperature of surfaces, which is the value of the wind chill index.

He explained that winds at a speed of 24 kilometers per hour, and a temperature of nearly zero degrees Celsius, quickly withdraw heat from the body, making a person feel as if the air temperature is about five to six degrees below zero.