Coptic Storms

For those of you who have asked me about Coptic storms that we have annually here in Cyprus.

 

The Ancient Weather Lore of Arabia listed a series of gales, which occur regularly in the Eastern Mediterranean area. They generally set in from the South West & veer to the West * North West. The average duration is three days & their occurrence rarely deviates more than forty-eight hours from the dates shown below.

 Coptic table:

 

Date	Arabic Name	Translation
27 September	El Saleeb Winds	Cross Wind
21 October	El Saleebish	Crusade
26 November*	El Mickness	Broom Gale
6 December	Kassim	Gale
20 December	El Fedra El Saggira	Small Feeder Gale
11 January *	Unnamed	Gale
19 January	El Fedra El Kebira	Large Feeder Gale
28 January	Unnamed	Gale
18 February *	El Shams El Seghira	Small Sun Gale
10 March	El Hossoom	Equinox Gale
20 March *	El Shams El Kebira	Big Sun Gale
25 March	Hawa	Wind Gale
29 April	Khamseen Winds	Sand-Laden-Wind

  * These gales are supposed to be exceptionally strong!   The above states that, for a gale to be "Coptic", it should start on the given date ±2 days, it should last three days, it should start in the SW quarter and it should be "gale", at least for all the winter ones (November to March). By definition, a near gale or a gale should blow with average wind speeds in the range 14 to 24 m/s.  

 

Table above will be good for those planning holidays here between September and April. It's usually pretty accurate. A lot of the storms carry red or yellow dust which is difficult to clean off cars and outdoor furniture!! The rain is also monsoon like and if you're out driving it's best to stop as windscreen wipers have little or no effect. Many of the scary thunder and lightening storms seem to happen overnight for some reason.

 

 

Hope this helps.