06.08.10
World Wide Weather #5: Cairo Egypt
This week’s post in the global weather and climate series features Cairo, Egypt.
View of Cairo, Egypt from Cairo Tower. Courtesy of Wikipedia. Click to enlarge.
Centered along the banks of the Nile River, Cairo is located in northeast Egypt, about 100 miles south of the Mediterranean Sea and about 75 miles west of the Suez Canal. Cairo has a long and rich history, probably most often associated with the Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, located near the suburbs of Cairo. The capital of Egypt and the largest city in Africa, Cairo is home to 6.8 million people (about 18 million in the metro).
A few more facts about Cairo (from Wikipedia):
- Time zone: Eastern European Time (UTC+2) or Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)
- Elevation: about 75 to 250 ft above mean sea level
- Climate zone: Desert
- Average high temperature: 81 °F (27 °C)
- Average low temperature: 59 °F (15 °C)
- Record high temperature: 117 °F (47 °C)
- Record low temperature: 34 °F (1 °C)
- Average annual precipitation: 1 inch (29 mm)
Current weather: I could not dig up much information on recent or current Egyptian weather, partly because the website for Egypt’s national meteorological agency, the Egyptian Meteorological Authority, is down right now (see link, below).
However, Weather Underground is forecasting clear skies this week with high temperatures in the low to mid-90s and lows in the upper 60s to lower 70s, as is typical this time of year.
Here is an infrared satellite image, showing the clear skies over Egypt as of 18Z (9pm Cairo time, 2pm New York time). Note there are clouds over Libya (west of Egypt), as well as clouds over the tropics.
METEOSAT infrared satellite image (from http://www.goes.noaa.gov). Click to enlarge.
For more information on Cairo, here’s a link to Wikipedia.
For weather maps and information on current and forecast Cairo weather, see the Egyptian Meteorological Authority (I have yet to look at this site as it is currently down) or Weather Online UK (great collection of weather maps and models for all over the world).
Next Tuesday I plan to take a look at the climate and weather in another part of the globe. As always, if you have any comments or suggestions for future cities, please leave a comment on this post!
Robin said,
June 8, 2010 at 4:59 pm
How about comparing an outpost on Antarctica with the farthest outpost/village on the Arctic Circle?
Hmm…I just thought of something…are there ever thunderstorms in either place?
Rebekah said,
June 12, 2010 at 1:00 pm
That could be interesting!
Good question on the thunderstorms…actually I wouldn’t thing they’re possible in such a cold, dry climate, but I will have to investigate to see just what the weather is like (perhaps just COLD?)!