Winter Weather

Winter returned to Cairo with a vengeance yesterday.  A bit before 2 pm there was a crack of thunder, a rare occurrence here.  Later a second rumble.  I got up and checked the thermometer.  The temperature had fallen to 59.


Lately, we have had daytime temps in the mid 60s.  Most years it is getting warmer by the end of February.  We have not yet broken out the fan we use during our lasts few weeks before heading home. As a matter of fact, we've used our two small heaters more this year than ever.

I checked the front window and sure enough, it was raining lightly on the Ring Road.  The traffic was still flowing smoothly.


It didn't take long for things to come to a halt, however.  I heard a loud "bang" as a truck tire blew - that happens 4 or 5 times each year close by;  if you aren't familiar with it, the sound is surprisingly loud.  Perhaps the driver was braking hard when he came up on the traffic jam - or maybe it was just the usual poor quality tires.  In either case, the driver had a serous "why me" look on his face as he inspected the tire on the far side of the truck.



The rain we had was pretty light by our standards - it could have been a half inch.  But it rained all day and most of the night.  And there really are no storm sewers along most streets.

Today when we went out for a long walk, there were puddles and mud.  These pictures show the two largest puddles we saw.  One at the entrance to the local gas station and a second around the corner.


This forced us to walk on the sidewalk, where available - an unusual thing to do here.  People almost always walk on the street to avoid the large curbs - and obstacles.


The main obstacles behind Linda here, are some tree limbs and some boards with rusty nails protruding - keep those tetanus shots up to date!  (No, this is not storm damage.  This is just a normal looking sidewalk obstacle.)

When we made our way down a normally dusty side street, the mud had dried out in the afternoon sun.  You can see some additional mud and water in the distance - but notice the boys kicking a football around in the midafternoon: school was cancelled today because of the rain!

We can't give you an accurate report of the actual rainfall.  The Cairo Airport weather site does not include precipitation.  WunderMap - my favorite weather information source has only one reporting station in the Cairo area and it also had no precipitation figure.

I have considered bringing my own weather station for personal use and probably will next year.

Update2:  It took me a while to find the precipitation total for the big storm.  I asked local friends but they had never heard of measuring the rainfall in millimeters or centimeters - "heavy" and "light" perhaps, but no actual measurements.

I did locate the annual average rainfall for Cairo - numbers range from 0.7 to 0.98 inches depending on your source.  Finding the actual total for Monday's storm is like looking for a state secret.  But AccuWeather has it buried in one of their tables:

Yes, 16mm or 2/3 of an inch closes the schools here.  You could also look at is as "Cairo inundated by almost a full year's rain falling on a single day."

For the record, here is a chart showing actual temperatures versus average for the month of February.

By the way, today was sunny and dry - a typical winter day in Cairo.

 


UPDATE1:  A story ran in the U.S. papers today under the headline:

"Heavy rains, flooding pummel Cairo and parts of Egypt 

describing the storm as follows:

CAIRO 

Heavy rains pummeled the Egyptian capital of Cairo and other parts of the country Monday, causing massive traffic jams and flooding on many key roads. The downpour also forced authorities to suspend classes the following day at schools and universities across the country, from Alexandria in the north to Aswan in the south. 

Egyptians shared scenes of the rain and flooding on social media, including submerged cars and snarled traffic. Parts of Cairo were left impassable, and trucks were seen fanning out to drain water from flooded areas of the city, home to some 20 million people. People also took to social media to criticize the government’s lack of preparedness for the downpour.

Nearly every year, the capital or other major cities are crippled by flooding from a rainstorm. 

Last October, heavy rains left eight people dead, including four children. The rainy weather was expected to stick around through Tuesday, Egypt’s Meteorological Authority said earlier this week. 

The office of Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly said in a statement that Tuesday's school closures were implemented “so relevant agencies can deal with the size of rain expected tomorrow.”  

The predictable flooding has raised questions about the country’s ability to deal with significant rainfall. Infrastructure, sewage and drainage systems have all suffered from a lack of investment and years of poor maintenance.