The United Arab Emirates has a hot desert climate (Köppen BWh) with two main seasons. Summer, roughly May to September, is very hot. Average July afternoon highs are 41.7 °C in Dubai, 42.5 °C in Abu Dhabi and 44.9 °C inland at Al Ain, and the Persian Gulf coast is also very humid. Winter, roughly November to March, is mild, with January highs around 24–25 °C and lows of 13–14 °C. That is also when most of the country's small amount of rain falls: about 95 mm a year in Dubai and 50 mm in Abu Dhabi, rising to about 130 mm on Jebel Jais and as much as 350 mm in some parts of the Hajar Mountains. The national record high is 52.1 °C, measured at Sweihan in July 2002. The record rainfall is 254.8 mm in under 24 hours at Khatm Al Shakla, near Al Ain, on 16 April 2024. On the highest ground, around Jebel Jais, it has even snowed.
Coast, gravel plains and the Hajar: where the UAE's climates differ
The UAE covers about 83,600 km² at the south-eastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, between about 22°50′N and 26°N. The emirate of Abu Dhabi alone takes up 87% of that area. The country sits in the subtropical high-pressure belt, where sinking air keeps the sky clear for most of the year. Within that one desert, though, the UAE has four distinct settings: the Persian Gulf coast, the gravel plains around Al Ain, the sand desert of the south and west, and the mountains of the north-east.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi on the Persian Gulf
Most of the population lives along the more than 650 km of Gulf coast, where salt flats stretch far inland. The shallow, warm Gulf keeps nights hot and the air damp. In the Dubai Meteorological Office climate table, Dubai's August averages are 42.1 °C by day and 30.4 °C at night; Abu Dhabi's 1991–2020 normals give 43.4 °C and 30.2 °C. Dubai also has an urban heat island. In winter the outer suburbs often drop to about 15 °C or lower, while central Dubai rarely falls below 18 °C. In summer the pattern reverses, with average highs of about 43 °C in the suburbs and 38 °C in the centre. Our guide to Dubai's geography explains how the city's creek, coast and desert edge are laid out.
Al Ain and the gravel plains
Al Ain lies about 160 km east of the capital, beside the Omani border, with Jebel Hafeet, an outlier of the Hajar range, just south of the city. Being far from the sea makes it hotter by day and drier. Its July highs average 44.9 °C, the highest of the country's main airport stations, but humidity in May falls to about 30%. That dryness makes Al Ain a popular summer escape from the muggy coast. It even records a little summer rain: 4.9 mm in July, against 0.8 mm in Dubai.
Jebel Jais, Fujairah and the Hajar Mountains
The Western Hajar Mountains rise in the north-east and cut off the Gulf of Oman coast from the rest of the country. Jebel Jais, in Ras Al Khaimah, has the UAE's highest point, at 1,892 m on its Emirati flank; the summit itself, at 1,934 m, is in Oman. Temperatures fall with height. Jebel Jais averages 30.5 °C on July afternoons and 6.4 °C on January nights, and its record low is −5.7 °C, set in February. Snow fell there on 28 December 2004, the first snow ever recorded in the UAE. It has fallen again in 2009, 2017 and 2020. On the other side of the range, Fujairah faces the Gulf of Oman. It has warm nights all year, with a January low of 17.1 °C, and the stickiest late summers of the main stations, with August humidity averaging 73%.
May to September: 40 °C afternoons, Gulf humidity and the shamal
Summer in Dubai runs from about the last week of April to the first week of October. Average afternoon highs pass 37 °C in May, 39 °C in June and 41 °C in July and August. Abu Dhabi is slightly hotter, at 43.4 °C in August. Station records are higher still: 49.3 °C in Abu Dhabi in July, 49.4 °C in Al Ain in June, and 50.2 °C in Fujairah in May. In Dubai, depending on the station and the period, the record is about 49–50 °C.
On the coast, humidity rather than air temperature is what makes summer hard. In August the sea off Dubai averages about 33 °C, so nights stay close to 30 °C and the air never dries out. Two winds shape these months:
- The shamal, from the Arabic for "north", is a north-westerly wind that blows over Iraq and the Persian Gulf states. It is often strong by day and eases at night. It comes once to several times a year, mostly in summer. When a cold front pushes over the mountains of Iran, the shamal raises dust and sand. Dubai's summer thunderstorms also arrive with strong north-westerly winds.
- The sharqi, or "easterner", is a humid south-easterly wind of late summer that makes the coast especially uncomfortable.
Average relative humidity looks moderate on paper. Dubai's August mean is 53%, but that is a 24-hour average, and coastal nights are often much damper. Humidity is clearly lower inland and in the mountains: in August it averages 35% at Al Ain and 32% on Jebel Jais. On the Gulf of Oman shore, Fujairah is the dampest of these stations, averaging 73%.
November to March: the mild months and the UAE's rain
Winter in Dubai lasts from about late October to mid-April, and for visitors it is the main season. January is the coolest month. In Dubai it averages 24.0 °C by day and 14.3 °C at night, and in Abu Dhabi 24.5 °C and 13.8 °C. The desert interior cools more at night than the coast. In winter, nights near the coast are usually 12–15 °C, while in the desert they fall to about 5 °C. Frost is almost unknown on the lowland stations. The lowest readings in their climate tables are 5.4 °C at Abu Dhabi and 4.6 °C at Ras Al Khaimah, both in February, and 5.6 °C at Al Ain in January. Only the mountain station on Jebel Jais has gone below freezing, reaching −5.7 °C.
Almost all the year's rain falls in these months. It usually comes as short, heavy downpours or thunderstorms that can briefly fill dry wadi beds. On average Dubai has rain on only about 25 days a year. February is its wettest month, at 25.0 mm in the Dubai Meteorological Office table. The same table gives Dubai about 95 mm a year, and 90% of it falls between November and March. Abu Dhabi gets about half as much. On Jebel Jais, March is the wettest month at 32.4 mm, and winter days stay cool, with January highs of 11.2 °C, almost 13 °C below Dubai's. Winter shamals add another kind of weather: strong northerly winds over the Gulf that last 24–36 hours, sometimes three to five days, and bring cold air behind a front.
Rain increases towards the north-east, where the Hajar Mountains rise and temperatures are lower. In some mountain areas, annual rainfall often reaches 350 mm. Ras Al Khaimah, at the foot of the range, averages about 116 mm. The south-west is the driest part of the country, where the dunes around the Liwa Oasis merge into the Rub' al Khali, or Empty Quarter, which continues into Saudi Arabia. Our page on the countries that border the UAE shows how that desert and the Hajar range continue across the frontiers.
Sweihan's 52.1 °C and the deluge of 16 April 2024
The UAE's two most extreme weather records point in opposite directions. The hottest reading, 52.1 °C, came at Sweihan, a desert town in Abu Dhabi emirate, in July 2002. The wettest day came 22 years later. Rain began late on 15 April 2024, grew heavier on 16 April and ended on 17 April. The National Center of Meteorology called it the heaviest rainfall in the country in 75 years, and the 24-hour total beat every figure since records began in 1949. The highest total was 254.8 mm at Khatm Al Shakla, near Al Ain, in less than 24 hours. That is more than four times Al Ain's normal yearly rainfall.
All seven emirates reported flooding, with Dubai, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah among the worst hit. Dubai International Airport recorded 164 mm, nearly two years of the city's average rainfall. Five people died, and Guy Carpenter estimated insured losses at US$2.9–3.4 billion. It was not the first flash flood in Dubai: on 15 January 2008 the city recorded 110 mm in 24 hours. The 2024 storm exposed how little drainage Dubai had for rain on that scale. If you are planning around these seasons, our guide to the best time to visit the UAE turns the monthly figures into travel advice.