Strong winds and scattered rains forecast

A tree that was uprooted in the strong winds on Sunday blocked access to some buildings in a lane in Doha's Old Airport area for the entire day. PICTURE: Prashanth Prabhakar.

Strong winds are expected to blow across the country on Monday when a minimum temperature of 9C or less in the central areas and a maximum of 18C elsewhere have been forecast. Mercury is expected to drop further to 7C at dawn on Tuesday in the central and southern areas, according to Qatar Meteorology Department, under the Civil Aviation Authority. Low visibility is on cards in many places on Monday on account of dusty conditions. Scattered rains have been forecast as well. While Abu Samra and Dukhan areas are expected to experience minimum temperatures of 12C, in Mesaieed, Doha and Wakrah, the minimum and maximum would be 14 and 16, respectively. The northern region covering Al Khor and Ruwais will experience a maximum of 18C, the minimum at the two places would be 13 and 15C, respectively. The visibility is expected to fall to 2km or even less in some parts of the country on Monday even though it should be somewhere between 4km and 8km in most other areas. While the onshore region is likely to experience northwesterly winds to the magnitude of 12 to 22 knots with the possibility of touching the 30-knot mark at times, on the offshore areas winds should be more stronger and may be in the 18-25 knots region. There are also chances of winds exceeding the 32 knots-mark. Stormy waves and higher seas are also likely onshore with water rising between 9 and 12 feet from the normal levels. Inshore areas too would be far from normal, with the possibility of seas rising beyond the 5-feet mark. Owing to foggy conditions, the visibility was extremely poorer in the morning hours across the country on Sunday.