DESERT STORM WEATHER 17 JANUARY-2 MARCH 1991

File: aabva_94.txt
Page: 94
Total Pages: 106
DESERT STORK 26 February 1991

General Weather. As the upper-air disturbance moved northeast
it continued to produce heavy rainshowers and duststorms over the
area.  A surface trough formed between the low-pressure area in
central Saudi Arabia and another moving through southern Turkey.
By 2100Z, the trough stretched through Iraq along 43( E. An area
of high pressure was located in central Iran and the extreme
southeastern Arabian Peninsula.

Area of interest. Several lines of rainshowers and thunderstorms
moved through the northern Arabian Peninsula throughout the day.
Between 0000 and 0300Z, an area of thunderstorms spread from
the Red Sea near 25( N to the Iraq-Saudi Arabia border near 45(
E. Another formed In northeastern Iraq near the Iranian border. By
0900Z, a third area had formed over northeastern Saudi Arabia at
28( N. 47( E. Bases were at 2,500 feet and tops reached 35,000
feet.  Thunderstorms were embedded in scattered to broken middle
Clouds west of 45( E. multilayered clouds were broken to overcast
from 8,000 to 33,000 feet north of 25( N. By 1100Z, the northern
area had spread southwestward and the southern areas had moved
southeastward. Storm intensity and coverage increased throughout
the day until 16000Z, when a line of isolated thunderstorms
extended from the northern Persian Gulf to southwest of Riyadh.
Areas west of 43( E had cleared. Clouds, rainshowers, and
thunderstorms spread southeastward again in the evening, reaching
as far southwest as 20( N. 44( E, by 1900Z.

Fog reduced visibilities to 4,000 meters in the Tigris-Euphrates river
valley between eastern Syria and Baghdad until about 0800Z.
also formed in sheltered inland areas after rainshowers ended,
reducing visibilities to as low as 2,000 meters. Some
thunderstorms produced localized duststorms with visibilities below
1,000 meters. More extensive duststorms formed south of 25( N.
where visibilities were reduced to 6 km.

Ares of Intense Interest. Broken to overcast Clouds between
8,000 and 20,000 feet covered the entire area before 0300Z. The
lower cloud deck gradually dissipated in the northwest, leaving
scattered skies over most of Iraq, and high clouds with tops to
32,000 feet over southern Iraq and Kuwait Scattered to broken
clouds between 4,000 and 6,000 feet formed over central Iraq
between 0500 and 1600Z. At 1100Z, there were isolated
thunderstorms or rainshowers embedded in these Clouds in a line



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