Ramadan 2020 hot wave ... facts, figures and conclusions

Arab Weather - The Kingdom was affected during the period from 11-22 May this warm wave, which coincided with the last days of the holy month of Ramadan, and was accompanied by a significant and clear increase in temperature, as it was 10-12 degrees higher than its rates during this period of the year Celsius .

The weather during those days was hot and dry in most regions, while it was very hot in the Jordan Valley and Bahrmalit areas of the Gulf of Aqaba .

What was the heat wave during the month of May?

It was characterized by the long period of its impact, as it lasted for 11 days, and it is one of the longest heatwaves recorded in May, but less than the heat wave that started in May 2019, which lasted for 19 days and ended on 8-6-2019. .

It was also characterized by a significant decrease in humidity and the prevalence of dry, dusty and non-clear weather for several consecutive days, in addition to recording a remarkably warm atmosphere with night hours.

It is also considered one of the most intense since the start of climate records along with the heat wave that affected May 2019.

Are the heat waves in the month of May normal and repeat permanently?

Hot waves in May are normal and are repeated permanently, and it is one of the most common months that heat waves occur.

Also clear: the month of may .. between the July heat and the cold weather

What is the reason for the formation of this heat wave and its source?

The presence of an air depression and a cold air mass on the west of the European continent and the Maghreb coincided with the formation and high air surge in all air layers on Egypt, the Levant and parts of the Arabian Peninsula, which pushed hot and very dry currents from the Arabian Peninsula towards the airspace of Jordan, and this led to high levels of The heat is extreme.

What is the highest temperature in the Kingdom in May 2020? How much was the temperature in it?

The highest temperature recorded in May 2020 was (46.8) ° C in Ghor Al-Safi station in the Southern Ghour, which is higher than May 2019, while in the capital, Amman, it reached 38.5 ° C.

The agricultural sector was among the most affected during the heat wave in May 2020

The heat wave that witnessed the Kingdom during the period from 11 to 23 May this year, damaged a number of crops in Jordan.

Where the General Manager of the Farmers Union, Engineer Mahmoud Al-Oran stressed that the heat wave affected the pastoral plants, as it shortened the spring period in the Kingdom due to the drought of these plants, thus the owners of livestock resorted to fodder early and thus increased expenses.

The wave also affected olive trees that were not yet in the "fruit decade" stage; Which negatively affected the process of holding the fruits, in addition to that, the high temperature caused the field crops to dry quickly; Noting that this heat wave came after a wave of cold and rain, This could lead to fungal diseases in wheat and barley crops, advising farmers to accelerate the harvest.

Also, the early heat wave led to the urgency of farmers to use complementary irrigation as a result of the crops' need for irrigation and also helped the early ripening of the fruits.

In the poultry sector, the heat wave caused the production of laying poultry to drop to 40%, which is also the rate for broiler chickens, as well as the deaths of a number of livestock.

One of the positives of the heat wave May 2020 is the acceleration of the maturity of some crops

For his part, the assistant secretary of the plant wealth in the Ministry of Agriculture, Ezzat Al-Ajalin, believes that the early heat wave that the Kingdom witnessed had a positive aspect in accelerating the maturity of horticultural crops, especially as the agricultural process in the Kingdom is in the transitional stage from the stage of the valley “agriculture in the Jordan Valley” to the stage Al-Shifa “It is the stage of cultivation in the rest of the Kingdom,” but the damage lies here, with the season ending quickly.

He also stressed that the high temperatures precipitated the process of harvesting and drying field crops, and therefore also caused a lot of fires.

Significant increase during the heat wave in May 2020 in the number of fires

In another area, high temperatures during the heat wave caused an increase in the number of fires in several regions of the Kingdom, as the Civil Defense Directorate dealt with hundreds of fires for agricultural crops, dry herbs, forest trees and fruit trees.

The General Directorate of Civil Defense stated in one of its statements that forest fires and dry weeds are among the most common accidents relative to the total number of accidents with which the civil defense deals in the summer, as high temperatures and dry weeds are an appropriate circumstance for the outbreak of fires, especially in the absence or non-compliance General safety requirements .

It showed that forest fires and dry weeds are accidents that are easy for us to avoid and limit their occurrence because they mostly come as a result of negligent behavior that some may practice, such as setting fires near forest trees, throwing cigarette butts on the edges of roads, arson, or burning grass in areas surrounded by trees, which leads To increase the fire and expand to drain large areas of these trees and therefore difficult to control and extinguish .

Here are some of the numbers announced about fires during the heatwave period:

• On May 18, 2010, the civil defense teams dealt with 240 fires of agricultural crops, dry herbs, forest trees, and fruit trees with an area of about 5,000 dunums. On 20/5/2020, they also dealt with 327 fires of agricultural crops, fruit trees, fruit trees, and dry herbs.
• On 17/5/2020, firefighting teams in the civil defense directorates put out more than 174 fires of dry herbs, forest trees and fruit trees in the governorates of the Kingdom.
• On 21/5/22020, the civil defense cadres in Al Balqa governorate managed to control a fire that broke out in the forest of the martyr Omar Al-Rahmanah on the road of the crossroads of Deir Alla, which came on an area of 400 acres.
• The fires resulted in the injury of 18 civil defense personnel during extinguishing fires in various regions of the Kingdom that were between fractures and fatigue due to high temperatures. Sergeant Qais Muhammad al-Odat, from the civil defense salaries, was martyred on 15/52020 while performing the duty to extinguish a forest forest fire in the Halawa area In Ajloun Governorate .
• In a press statement to the Director of Jerash Agriculture, Dr. Imad Al-Ayasrah, the area of lands that were subjected to contrived fires during the current month in owned lands and forest lands in Jerash Governorate exceeded 6 thousand dunums, between fruit trees of various types or forest.

Insects and reptiles spread with warming during the May heat wave

With the great rise in temperatures that accompanied the heat wave, reptiles and insects have spread widely in a number of regions of the Kingdom, as the pseudo-desert bug spread in the Samia Al Sarhan area in Mafraq in large and special numbers on Friday 15/5/2020, according to a report for the newspaper "Tomorrow"

As it spread in the meanings of small beetles, flies and mosquitoes remarkably with increasing temperatures, according to a report in the newspaper "Al-Rai".

Reptiles also spread with high temperatures, especially snakes and scorpions, which appeared in various regions of the Kingdom, where a scorpion sting caused the death of a child in Irbid in the Kafr Awan region on 16/5/2020

Following is a video showing a citizen filming a snake crawling near his house