Welcome to the final month of the year. Now that the weather has cooled there are far more people outside, walking, cycling and having dinner, but many people are already saying it is too cold.
It was after the thunderstorms that we saw on November 20 that it turned much fresher. It was actually only 18mm (0.7 inches) of rain that fell in Doha, but it still caused huge puddles and flooded many roads.
As the rain cleared away, the winds swung round to come from the northwest. This cool wind dragged down the temperatures; during the day the temperature still managed to struggle to 23°C (73F), but at night it dropped down to 18°C (64F).
Away from the heat of Doha’s city centre, however, it was much cooler than this. At Al Udeid, the military base, the temperature dropped down to 14°C (57F).
It does make me laugh that people in Qatar, myself included, feel cold at such high temperatures. Last year, I saw someone wearing ear-warmers when the temperature was 22°C (72F)! In many countries of the world, if the temperature reached the dizzy heights of 22°C people start to feign illness in order to skip work and head to the beach.
The difference is that in Qatar we are used to hiding inside away from the heat. When we go outside and heat actually starts to radiate away from our bodies, it makes us think that it must be cold. Then, of course there’s that brisk northerly wind which always makes it feel cooler than it actually is.
As you might expect, temperatures in December will continue to drop away. I always get disappointed at this time of year, because although it is wonderful and cool outside, it gets dark so early.
Obviously, I know that winter will bring shorter days, but when the weather is so perfect outside, it seems like such a shame! It is a contrast for those of us who come from places like the UK or Canada, where the best weather of the year, in summer, is accompanied by evening sunlight that continues until 8 or 9pm. I guess we should just thank our lucky stars that we are not any further away from the equator, otherwise the winter days would be shorter still.
The average maximum temperature in December is just 24°C (75F) but the night-time temperatures could give you quite a shock, especially if you’re new to Doha and haven’t yet experienced a winter season.
The average minimum temperature averages at just 15°C (59F), and don’t shoot the messenger, but it is only going to get colder in January.
January is the coldest month of the year, and the lowest temperature ever recorded was 3.6°C (38F), back in January 1964. In a country without heating, that’s certainly cold. Of course not all years are the same; last year was actually quite a mild winter, but in January 2012, the temperature in Doha dropped to 8°C (46F), and at Al Udeid it dropped to 4°C (39F).
As regular readers of the Weather Addict may know, I have a large mistrust of long range forecasts, so I won’t even hazard a guess as to what this January will have in store for us.
What I can tell you is that we could see a nice variety of weather in the month of December. Obviously, the predominant type of weather will still be sunshine, but there are also likely to be the odd foggy night, the chance of a dust storm and maybe some more rain.
Some years, including 2011, 2007 and 2005 there wasn’t one drop of rain in December. In other years, including 2009, 2006 and 2004, thunderstorms rumbled on seven or more days of the month.
But 2006 was rather a special year. It rained on ten different days of December, that’s one in three days that were wet! This was also a rather chilly year. I had only just arrived in Doha and the cold came as a bit of a shock.
The only time I was really warm was in my car with the heating on. I remember those little portable fan heaters suddenly became as valuable as gold dust.
There would be a whisper in the office that a supermarket had had a delivery, and people would leave instantly, racing to the supermarkets. The shops had to introduce a strict rationing: only one heater was allowed per customer. The trouble was, for those people who lived in the large airy villas, a little fan heater did precious little.
When it rains in Doha, it’s often accompanied by hail as well. This can catch people by surprise, as at first it seems illogical that blocks of ice would be falling in a desert, but it is actually fairly common. That’s because most of the rain in Doha comes from a thunderstorm cloud, the same cloud that makes rain and hail. If rain can reach the ground without evaporating, there’s a high chance that hail won’t have melted either.
Obviously as a meteorologist, I will be hoping for as many thunderstorms as possible this month, and hail would be a bonus. However, I think many people would disagree with me, and just hope that the cool weather stays with us for as long as possible.

(The author is Senior Weather Presenter at Al Jazeera English channel. She can be contacted on [email protected] or on Twitter at @WeatherSteff)