Al-Khamasin’s weather through the year
Scroll on for current readings, today’s hourly forecast and the week ahead, plus notes on what to expect season by season.
Rainfall is low — near 70 mm a year — and the daily range is wide: from July highs around 45 °C to winter dawns near 9 °C. The classification is hot desert, Köppen BWh.
This is the hot, open south of the Region, where gravel plains and oasis farmland give way toward the great sands of the Empty Quarter. Shade is scarce and the ground bakes hard under months of sun.
The result is a clear annual rhythm: a furnace-like summer, a short mild winter that is the heart of the year, and brief, dust-prone shoulder seasons.
With cloudless skies on most days, ultraviolet levels run high for much of the year; a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen are worth carrying even on a mild winter afternoon, and the glare off the pale ground only adds to it.
The roads out to Al-Khamasin run through open desert, exposed to blowing dust and, after rain, to water running across the wadi crossings — so it is worth checking the forecast before a long drive on these empty stretches.
Summer heat
High summer here is hard going. Afternoons climb to about 45 °C under a hard sun, with very dry air; nights fall back toward 29 °C. Work and travel are best kept to the early morning and the cool of the evening.
Winter
Winter is short and welcome. Days run near 24 °C, but the clear desert sky lets the temperature fall to around 9 °C after dark. It’s comfortably the best stretch of the year for being outdoors.
The shoulder seasons
Spring and autumn are brief. Spring brings spring, on the edge of the Empty Quarter and the year’s most active rain, greening the desert for a few weeks; autumn is the calmer, settled side of the year.
When it rains
Measurable rain comes only a handful of times a year, mostly in spring. Because the ground is hard and dry, even a short storm can turn a dry watercourse into a running stream, so take care near low ground when it rains.
The hourly and daily panels above show the live chance of rain for the week.
For most of the year, rain is simply not part of the picture.
Wind, dust and the air
The air stays dry through most of the year, which takes some of the sting out of the heat but raises the risk of dehydration. Wind is what changes a day here — a spring northerly can fill the sky with dust off the surrounding desert in a matter of hours.
Use the wind and air-quality readings above to judge a dusty day before you set out.
Away from the spring storms, the skies here are among the cleanest and clearest anywhere.
Planning around the weather
For travel and the outdoors, treat summer as a heat-management exercise — light clothing, sun cover, plenty of water, and movement kept to the cool ends of the day — and pack something genuinely warm for the cold desert nights of winter.
The open country rewards an early start: beat the heat in summer, and in the cool months you’ll have clear, mild days perfect for the outdoors.
Make the live panel your first stop. It shows the current conditions, the hour-by-hour trend and the full week ahead, which between them cover almost everything you need to plan a day around the weather.
Aim for the November-to-March window for comfort — and either way, the conditions above refresh automatically so the forecast is always current before you go.