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The climate of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is a large country that consist of a large part of the Arabian peninsula. The country with strict Islamic rules is seen as the centre of the Islam, also because Mecca is situated within the country, the important place of pilgrimage for Muslims. Saudi Arabia has a warm desert climate (type BWh according to the Köppen climate classification) with hot and dry summers and mild and fairly dry winters. The landscape consists of large desert areas (sand and rocks) and an area in the southwestern part of the country bordering Yemen with steppe-like vegetation which causes the landscape to be greener here. This mountainous region, the Asir mountain range gets more precipitation than the rest of the country. Annual precipitation figures in the highest regions may rise up to 500 millimeters. In this mountainous region the warm desert climate gradually becomes a warm steppe climate.

Climate information of places and areas in Saudi Arabia
The climate information on this page is only brief. Specific information about weather and climate can be found on the climate pages per area or town. As for Saudi Arabia the following climate information is available:

Precipitation
The largest part of Saudi Arabia is very dry and only get several tens of millimeters of annual precipitation. Especially the lower regions and the coastal areas are very dry. Most rain that does fall falls during the winter. The only exception is the Asir mountain range, the most southern parts of this region also get rain during the summer. In the city of Najran rain falls from March till September, winters here are fairly dry.

Heat
During the summer extremely high temperatures can be recorded in Saudi Arabia, both during the day and during the night. In Jizan, located in the southwestern part of Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea, night time temperatures are about 30 degrees Celsius. During the day temperatures rise to 40 degrees Celsius or even higher. This means the southern part of the coast of the Red Sea is an exception to the rest of the coastal areas in the western part of the country because the water of the Red Sea tempers the heat in general. Along the Persian Gulf daytime temperatures are even higher, temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius are not uncommon here. During the winter daytime temperatures are between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius on average. During the night temperatures are much lower. In the desert and in the mountainous regions subzero temperatures during the night are not uncommon. During the winter snow may fall in the Asir mountain range.

Sand storms
In the desert areas sandstorms may occur, especially during spring and early summer sandstorms are likely. When a sandstorm occurs you can see a wall of sand coming toward you, temperatures rise rapidly and vision is often limited to several tens of meters. Ten to thirty sandstorms occur on a yearly basis. In the eastern part of the country sandstorms are more likely to occur than in the rest of the country.

Climate figures
Throughout Saudi Arabia several climate figures and temperatures can be recorded. The figures below are for the capital Ryadh and cannot be seen as an average for the country. For climate figures for other places and regions in Saudi Arabia please, visit the individual climate pages.

	average  maximum temperature (°C)	average minimum temperature (°C)	average hours of sunshine per day	average days with precipitation per month	average mm precipitation per month	average sea temperature (°C)
January	20	8	8	4		n/a
February	23	10	8	3		n/a
March	28	14	8	7		n/a
April	33	19	9	7		n/a
May	39	24	10	3		n/a
June	42	26	11	0		n/a
July	43	27	10	0		n/a
August	43	27	10	0		n/a
September	40	24	10	0		n/a
October	35	19	10	1		n/a
November	28	14	9	2		n/a
December	22	9	8	4		n/a
= 0-5 mm ● = 6-30 mm ● = 31-60 mm ● = 61-100 mm ● = 101-200 mm ● = over 200 mm = 0-0.2 inches ● = 0.2-1.2 inches ● = 1.2-2.4 inches ● = 2.5-4 inches ● = 4.1-8 inches ● = over 8 inches

More climate information
Climate tables are useful but they don’t give an overall picture of the climate and possible weather conditions during a period of time. How high the chances are of hot or cold weather or hurricanes can often not be found in these tables. This is why we offer extra climate information per month. The figures below can are for the capital Riyadh. Please, visit the individual climate pages for climate records on other places in Saudi Arabia.

	chance of (very) hot weather	chance of (very) cool weather	chance of long-term precipitation	chance of hurricanes (cyclones)	chance of sunny days	UV-index
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
click here for the explanation of the symbols

Disclaimer
The information at this site was carefully composed from climate data collected by meteorological services, meteorological offices, climate experts and other sources. “More climate info” is based on statistics, climate data and personal experience. No rights can be derived from this site. Weather has no memory and gives no guaranties. Nothing is as changeable and unpredictable as the weather. The authors of this site feel in no way responsible for any damages caused by misinterpretation or other circumstances that may influence your holiday or trip to a certain destination. We provide information, it’s up to the reader to use it to it’s benefit.