DESERT STORM WEATHER 17 JANUARY-2 MARCH 1991

File: aabva_39.txt
Page: 39
Total Pages: 106
DESERT STORM 		31 January 1991
General Weather. A slow-moving low in the eastern
Mediterranean Sea spread stormy weather throughout the Middle
East as an associated frontal system passed through Iraq. At
0600Z, a secondary low-pressure cell was centered southwest of
Baghdad. n rapidly moved northeast while the cog front moved
south and Weakened. Figure 3-17 shows the low and its frontal
system in mid-afternoon. By 2300Z, the Front had passed Riyadh
and the low had moved into central ken. A weak high moved into
Iraq behind the front In north-central Saudi Arabia, the strong
subtropical Jet stream spread extensive high clouds.
Areas of Interest Extensive low and middle clouds covered the
northwest. Rain, occasionally head, fell in Syria and northern Iraq
between 0000 and 1200Z. Snow fell above 4,000 foot elevations
near the Turkey-Iraq border, obscuring higher terry. After O9OOZ,
sporadic duststorms along the front lowered visibly to 4,000
meters from the Syrian Desert 10 Qatar.
Areas of Intense interest Broken to overcast law clouds extended
over the area until about 1600Z, with ceilings over Iraq as low as
3,000 feet and tops to 6,000 feet Baghdad was Bayed between
0200 and 0900Z. Skies became clear in central Iraq and Kuwait
after 1600Z as the Font moved southward.

Isolated thunderstorms with tops to 35,000 feet passed northeast
of Baghdad near 11OOZ. Rain fell in western Iraq when the low
pressure cell moved through.

Winds were southwesterly at 5-10 knots before the front and
westerly to northerly at 15-20 knots immediate behind it.

Visibilities were reduced to 4,000 meters by duststorms in Kuwait
and southern Iraq as the front passed. Ground fog lowered
visibities to about 6 km in north eastern Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and
southern Iraq.
High temperatures were 10-16( C: lows, 4-9(C.



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