Daily Weather in Cairo

 Today I am going to be writing about the five-day forecast in Egypt’s capital city, Cairo. My five-day forecast will be covering Monday thru Friday: March 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21. Monday, March 17, Cairo’s high is forecasted to be 82 degrees Fahrenheit and the low is forecasted to be 58 degrees Fahrenheit, with absolutely 0% chance of precipitation. On Tuesday, March 18, the high is expected to be 74 degrees Fahrenheit while the low is expected to be 55 degrees Fahrenheit. There is a 20% chance of precipitation. Wednesday, March 19, Cairo has an expected high of 77 degrees Fahrenheit with the low expected to be 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The chance of precipitation is very slim with just a 10% chance.Thursday, March 20, Cairo’s forecasted high is 80 degrees Fahrenheit the forecasted low is 54 degrees Fahrenheit, with a 10 % percent chance of precipitation. Cairo’s Friday forecast has a high of 79 degrees Fahrenheit a low of 59 degrees Fahrenheit with also a 10% chance of precipitation.

The map above is a satellite image of Cairo. As you can see there are only a few clouds around Cairo, with a huge cloud just off Egypts coast over the Mediterranean Sea. There must be a low pressure system there. In this image blue clouds are indicated to be high, cold clouds, while gray clouds are lower, warmer clouds. There are a mix of both these clouds around this area of Egypt. From this satellite image you can also see where the dry desert is located compared to the lush green area of the Nile Valley.

 

Above is a Global Surface Analysis image of Africa. This map shows current frontal high and low pressures. A high pressure is indicated with the blue "H", while the low pressure system is indicated with the red "L". There are two high pressure systems and one low pressure system, around the northern part of Africa. There seems to be stronger winds around the high pressure system on the left because the isobars are closer together. If you don't know what isobars are, they are lines of constant pressure. Therefore the closer they are to each other, the stronger the winds will be. Although there are stronger winds in the north western part of Africa, you can tell that the winds are weak in central and Southern Africa from the spacing of the isobars. Due to numerous factors like, pressure gradient force, coriolis and friction, winds from a high pressure will blow in a clockwise swirling motion out toward the low pressure system causing clouds and rainy weather. As you look to the bottom right hand corner of this image you will see a blue and red line with blue triangles and a red semi circle. This line is called a stationary front. A stationary front occurs when two air masses push together, but neither one is powerful enough to move the other. Winds blow parallel to the front, helping it stay in place.

 

Here is the same Global Surface Analysis image, however it is zoomed so we see just the Middle East instead of all of Africa. In the top right corner we can see a cold front moving east and since the isobars are so close to each other, the winds are blowing fast. If you are not too sure, a cold front is indicated by the blue line. The blue triangles on the line indicate the direction that the front is traveling. If the line was red with red semi-circles, it would indicate a warm front. Similar to the cold front, the red semi-circles point to which direction the front is traveling. Now if we look at Egypt we can see that the isobars are very far apart, indicating slow wind speeds. 

 

Well that does it for this weeks blog post. See ya next week.

Global and Local Winds in Egypt

Egypt's latitude and longitude coordinates extend from around 32 degrees N to 22 degrees N latitude and from 25 degrees E to 35 degrees E longitude, making Egypt located in the Ferrel Cell. Since my country is located in the Ferrel Cell the wind belt that Egypt resides in is the Westerlies, which makes the wind blow from West to East. If you look at a map of Egypt, most of the populated cities are along the coast of the Nile. The Nile is on the right side of Egypt, so as the winds blow from west to east it will pick up much sand and dust and fly it straight into populated cities like Cairo. Plus if this wind blows over extremely hot land, the wind gets hotter and hotter. This does not sound pleasant at all. Thinking about Egypt's climate makes me so thankful that I live in Hawaii. Anyway, enough with the little tangents, lets get back on topic. Egypt is located near a high pressure belt because it lies very close to the boarder of the Hadley Cell and Ferrel Cell. At around 30 degrees N (S) latitude there is a special area called the Horse Latitude. This occurs from subsiding air associated from the Hadley Cell. In this special area you will find most of the land covered in deserts and barely any winds. That is exactly how Egypt's climate is. Egypt is very hot and dry which is a result from this geographic location of the Horse Latitude. Though Egypt is a mostly a vast desert it is bordering two bodies of water. Thanks to differential heating, land cools and heats faster than water, which makes for land and sea breezes.

Egypt does have a large grouping of mountains in the Southern Peninsula. However most of the Country is a dry desert with a lot of moving desert sand and dust. There are different breezes and winds associated with mountains. Five in particular are mountain breeze, valley breeze, Katabatic wind, Chinook Wind and Santa Ana Wind. Egypt does not experience the Katabatic, Chinook or Santa Ana winds because those winds reside in specific locations. On the other hand, Egypt does experience mountain breezes and valley breezes because the wind has to go up or down the mountain depending on where the high and low pressures are.