The leading edge of the next monsoon charged atmospheric river has arrived in the Middle East and the next phase of unusual possibly extreme winter weather in the region is about to commence.
The GFS 16-day rain forecast predicts a very similar amount of rain to the last major phase in this extended period of intense #ArabianStorms which finished 2 days ago.
For a recap of what has happened so far, this thread from this morning looks at the period 17 December to today, and tracks the Atlantic-Amazon sourced atmospheric river involved in all this all the way to China.
After the atmospheric river coming in across the Sahara from the West intensified, a storm arrived from the North West over Egypt.
The interaction brought rain across Egypt, the Levant, Iraq, Saudi Arabia the Gulf, Iran, Oman the UAE and Pakistan.
Images above show now, and the 11th of January (next Tuesday) as the storm front arrives in Libya.
The positioning and timing of elements in this event will evolve, but based on the simulation model runs is expected to be very similar. This image shows Sunday 9th.
In this image you see the influence of the storm pulling the atmospheric river north over Sinai, Israel and the Levant. The first significant rainfall event is expected to be here on Sunday. The following day the storm pushes the river south over the Red Sea.
Rain is possible during this period across the Levant (incl. Jordan and Syria) in the last event the heaviest rains tended to fall over night as the temperature fell. The impact intensity depends a lot on the arrival time and strength of the storm.
On Tuesday and Wednesday rain is forecast in central Saudi and possibly in Medina.
A 2nd Atmospheric pulse is expected to arrive Thursday 13th and we then see a continuous event for several days, moving southwards across central Saudi and over Gulf from Iraq to the UAE.
Iran which was badly hit in the first event due to its mountains increasing rain intensity, is expected to again receive the highest levels of rain.
The final act takes place over 2 days (16-18 Jan) over the empty quarter, in Yemen, the UAE, Oman, Eastern Iran and Balochistan.
Note that this is not an official forecast and I am not a meteorologist. All residents in the broader region should prepare for disruption and listen closely to weather warnings from official sources. Further flooding is likely. Tornadoes were seen last time and may be again.
A new video of an EU Parliament Dec 6th. briefing attended by 600+ delegation providing context to the @UN_HRC 17th Dec meeting, and in which TPLF involvement & lobbying is strongly indicated has been released.
Research / Video Thread follows….
This morning video of an important EU Parliament briefing held on December 6th was released by one of it’s two hosts, French MEP (Greens) Michele Rivasi (@MicheleRivasi) on her personal @YouTube channel.
This is the invite, the speaking list is worth a close look.
@MicheleRivasi@YouTube Four of these speakers were added at last minute (details follow in this thread).
3 of whom were strongly pro-TPLF:
Meaza G. Gebremedhin (@meazaG_);
Ghent Uni. Prof. Jan Nyssen;
And Leiden Uni. Prof. Mirjam Van Reisen (@mvreisen).
Daily rain intensity measures show where rain fell each day.
1. Along the bottom the monsoon atmospheric river moves West. 2. Over the Atlantic storms produce atmospheric moisture. 3. This travels ENE over the Sahara to the Middle East
@NASA This animation looks at the next segment in water transport - same time period - over the Indian Ocean and Eurasia to China. Again the monsoon is moving in the opposite direction.
It is remarkably how shallow the angle is of the atmospheric rivers which are moving ENE.
This cloud pattern is exquisite.
Hundreds of small thunderstorms, all in a line over the great forest of Africa, all producing a stream of atmospheric water of heading towards a great river over the Sahel.
Those are lakes Albert and Victoria bottom right. The large cloudless area is also unusual. Probably a localised fairly large high pressure system of some kind.
There is a humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia an acute one. Millions of traumatized people 100s of thousands of dead child soldiers. Caused by a violent war of secession. There is a chance for peace, but the obstacle is not the way repatriated Tigray refugees are being treated.
The main problem is that the TPLF declared a ceasefire as the Western world went to sleep for Christmas, and promptly attacked Afar. And now they are attacking again in the West.
Research thread into David M Satterfield - who has been reported to be replacing Jeffrey Feltman as Envoy to the Horn of Africa. See... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._…
Please add and annotate relevant info in this thread.
With all due respect, Satterfield does have deep experience in the Horn, via his lengthy engagement with Egypt. His lengthy role in the Multinational Sinai Force means he likely had deep connections there, military and intel.
Feltman and Satterfield’s specialist areas of diplomacy are the Middle East, not the Horn. It appears that African specialists in @StateDept don’t have sufficient stature for this role.
The difference between the two is that Satterfield is more tied into Military and Intel.
The FP piece mentioned about envoy’s is definitely relevant, but I think the conclusion is wrong. The Satterfield appointment indicates if anything that Langley and the DoD have muscled their way in. foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/06/spe…