Jordan | Storm Alexa: 3.5 degrees Celsius recorded in the capital, Amman, on this day in 2013.

Weather of Arabia - Sinan Khalaf - These days, we are witnessing the tenth anniversary of the snow storm “Alexa”, which began to affect the region at dawn on Thursday 12 December 2013 with heavy and widespread snowfalls, imposing a curfew after most roads were closed due to the large accumulation of snow. .

The snow storm began to affect all mountain highlands at dawn on Thursday, and its impact increased remarkably during Friday and Saturday, forming the strongest snow storm in the month of December since the beginning of Jordanian climate records, and the strongest since the February 2003 storm that swept through the north and center of the Kingdom, including the capital, Amman. With great force, while it was the most comprehensive storm in its strength in all regions of the Kingdom since the one that struck the Kingdom at the end of February 1992, which exceeded the current one by a few times, especially in the southern highlands. f

"Alyeska" brought massive rain to the highlands of the Kingdom, exceeding 200 millimeters in just three days in the northern and central mountains, which accounted for the lion's share of the snow accumulation.

In terms of temperatures, the Kingdom was affected during and after the storm “Alyeska” by a significant drop in temperatures and a strong wave of freezing, which continued until the twenty-sixth of December. The Jordanian capital, Amman, recorded extremely low maximum temperatures in the afternoon hours of December 15, 2013, reaching 3.5°C.

The snow storm "Alexa" made December 2013 the strongest during the past 30 years, in terms of amounts of rain and cold since December 1991, which lacked strong snow storms of the caliber of "Alexa", while heavy rains were strongly present in it from its first day until the last. So that many parts of the northern and central mountains exceeded the 350 mm barrier.