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Atmospheric, Marine & Celestial Data:

Alexandria, Egypt
Weather can't be forecast more than a week or so in advance,
but weather averages are good indicators of what to expect any month.
Best spot to check Weather forecasts and wave or swell forecast for Egypt http://forecast.uoa.gr/ & http://www.mediterraneanweather.com/marine.htm

Alexandria's weather is mild in winter, hot in summer. Summers are dry, and winters are generally dry with occasional rain, and a few thunderstorms. Sand storms are rare, but are most likely to occur in spring (usually for a day or so). Below is a Table with the mean maximum and minimum temperature (Celsius).  To convert to Fahrenheit, multiply by 9/5 and add 32.

________________________________________________________________

Jan  Feb  Mar  Apr  May  Jun   Jul   Aug   Sep   Oct   Nov   Dec

21.2 23.0 20.9 25.9 31.7 33.2  36.2  35.6  33.0  28.4  24.9  20.6
 7.5  9.7  8.8 11.7 15.1 18.8  22.1  22.2  20.0  16.4  11.2  10.6
_______________________________________________________
Latitude: 31 degrees, 12 minutes north
Longitude: 29 degrees, 57 minutes east

The latitude and longitude can be used on a U.S. Naval Observatory Web
site to find the time of twilight, sunrise, sunset and moon rise and
moon set for any location on Earth.


Dew point is a humidity measure in Fahrenheit degrees; readings above 60
make the air feel humid and most people are uncomfortable at dew
points around 70 and above.

Month Average high Average low Warmest ever Coldest ever Average dew point Wet days
JAN.
64
50
81
37
46
10
FEB.
65
50
86
37
46
9
MARCH
68
53
93
39
49
5
APRIL
75
58
101
46
53
2
MAY
79
63
108
45
58
1
JUNE
83
69
104
56
64
1
JULY
84
73
106
63
68
*
AUG.
86
74
97
64
69
*
SEP.
84
72
100
59
66
1
OCT.
81
66
100
54
62
2
NOV.
74
59
90
41
54
5
DEC.
67
52
84
37
49
8

* Less than one day with precipitation

 

Source: U.S. National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, N.C

2006/7 Phases of the Moon

Universal Time

   NEW MOON            FIRST ¼        FULL MOON       LAST  1/4

       d  h  m          d  h  m          d  h  m          d  h  m

OCT.  22  5 14   OCT.  29 21 25   NOV.   5 12 58   NOV.  12 17 45

NOV.  20 22 18   NOV.  28  6 29   DEC.   5  0 25   DEC.  12 14 32

DEC.  20 14 01   DEC.  27 14 48   JAN.   3 13 57   JAN.  11 12 45                                     

JAN.  19  4 01   JAN.  25 23 01   FEB.   2  5 45   FEB.  10  9 51

FEB.  17 16 14   FEB.  24  7 56   MAR.   3 23 17   MAR.  12  3 54

MAR.  19  2 43   MAR.  25 18 16   APR.   2 17 15   APR.  10 18 04

APR.  17 11 36   APR.  24  6 36   MAY    2 10 09   MAY   10  4 27

MAY   16 19 27   MAY   23 21 03   JUNE   1  1 04   JUNE  8 11 43

JUNE  15  3 13   JUNE  22 13 15   JUNE   30 13 49  JULY  7 16 54

JULY  14 12 04   JULY  22  6 29   JULY   30  0 48  AUG.  5 21 20

AUG.  12 23 03   AUG.  20 23 54   AUG.   28 10 35  SEPT. 4  2 32

SEPT. 11 12 44   SEPT. 19 16 48   SEPT.  26 19 45  OCT.  3 10 06

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
Wave Height
  Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.
FT
4-5
4-5
4-5
3-4
1-2
2-3
3-4
4-5
3-4
2-3
4-5
5-6
 

 

 
Sea Surface Temperature (c)
  Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.
(c)
10-15
10-15
15-20
15-20
15-20
20-25
25-30
25-30
25-30
20-25
20-25
15-20
 

 
Average Wind Speed
  Year Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.
mph 14 12 16 13 14 13 12 14 14 13 13 16 19
km/h 24 20 25 22 24 22 20 24 24 22 22 25 31
Years Charted: 5 Source: International Station Meteorological Climate Summary, Version 4.0

 

 
Average Precipitation
  Year Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.
in. 3.2 0.7 0.5 0.4 0.2 0.1 0 0 0 0 0.2 0.5 0.7
mm 81 17 12 10 5 2 0 0 0 0 5 12 17
Years Charted: 100 Source: International Station Meteorological Climate Summary, Version 4.0

 

"Cloud Cover" Monthly Averages
  January February March April May June July August September October November December
Precipitation (mm / in) 51 / 2.01 27 / 1.06 13 / 0.51 4 / 0.16 1 / 0.04 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 0 1 / 0.04 11 / 0.43 29 / 1.14 52 / 2.05
Cloud Cover (out of 8) 2.4 2.2 2.1 1.7 1.5 1.0 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.8 2.1 2.4

THE STORM CALENDAR

The best times to dive are between these storms the visibility is much better than the summer months especially on the dives close to down town Alexandria, plus the rough action of the sea during the storms always uncovers new discoveries due the sand movements

(Storms in Egypt are very mild compared to Europe by storm we mean weather activity)

  • These dates and storm names are based on the old Coptic calendar dating back to the times before Christ.  It is Incredible how accurate this calendar is the storms may be more severe some years and more mild other years.

  • Storms may begin 1 or 2 days early or late.

  • Surf Conditions depend on wind directions and spot selection.

  • The dates below apply to Alexandria add 1 day further south Cairo 2 days further south, for Marsa Matrouh in the west the storms arrive 1 day early.

Nov. 20       Al Muknisa(The Broom): force 6-8, wind direction varying from north east and north west, rain, duration 4 days.

Nov. 26       Bai’i Al Muknisa(More Brooms): force 5-6, wind direction varying from north east and north west, rain, duration 2 days.

Dec. 04        Al Kassem(The divider): force 6-7, wind direction varying from north east and north west, rain, duration 5 days.

Dec. 10        Bai’i Al Kassem(More Divide): force 6-7, wind direction varying from north east and north west, duration 2 days.

Dec. 13        Al Fayda Al Sughayara(The Small Benefit): force 6-7, wind direction from North West, duration 2 days.

Dec. 21        Bai’i Al Fayda Al Sughayara(More Small Benefit) force 6-7, wind direction from North West, duration 2 days.

Dec. 29        Eid El Milad(The Birthday): force 6-7, wind direction from North West, duration 2 days.

Jan. 06         Ras El Sana(New Year): force 6-8, wind direction from west & North West, rain, duration 2 days.

Jan. 09         Al Fayda Al Kabira(The Large Benefit): force 6-8, wind direction from west & North West, rain, duration 5 days.

Jan. 18         Al Chotas(The Kick): ): force 6-8, wind direction from west & North West, rain, duration 5 days.

Jan. 27         Al Karam(The Generous): force 6-8, wind direction from North West, rain, duration 6 days.

Feb. 03        Bai’i Al Karam(More of The Generous): force 6-8, wind direction from North West, duration 7 days.

Feb. 14        Al Shams Al Soghayara(The Small Sun): force 6-8, wind direction from North West, duration 2 days.

Mar 04         Al Salum(the Peaceful): force 6-8, wind direction from North West, duration 3 days.

Mar 08         Al Husum(The Finalizer): force 6-8, wind direction varying from north east and north west, duration 2 days.

Mar. 14        Bai’i Al Husum(more Finalizer ): force 6-8, wind direction varying from north east and north west, duration 2 days.

Mar. 22        Al Shams Al Kabira(The Large Sun): force 6-8, wind direction from west & North West, rain, duration 3 days.

Mar. 29        Al Awa(The howling): force 6-9, wind direction from North West, duration 3 days.

Apr. 02        Bai'i Al Awa(More howling): force 6-7, wind direction from North West, duration 2 days.

Apr. 28        Al Khamaseen(The Fifty): ): force 6-8, wind direction from east, hot, duration 2 days.

Jun. 18         Al Nuqta(The Drop): force 6-8, wind direction from east, hot, duration 2 days.

Birth of a swell (Courtesy of The Storm Rider Guide)

Various phenomena can produce sea waves, including torpical storms (Hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons), strong high pressure trade winds, and even monsoons (giant sea breezes), but these other systems are rare in the Atlantic. Europe's single most important source of swell are (low pressure systems). The action of the waves. just how the air transmits its energy to the water is stil not entirely clear, however, it's probably a combination of two mechanisms: The first produces small waves from a completely flat sea, Second increases the existing ripples. The wind doesn't just blow horizontally, it can blow vertically too. This produces bumps in the water surface. Once the surface has become rippled, the second process causes both crests and troughs to grow for as long as the wind keeps blowing. Owing to things like whitecapping, they won't grow forever.

Once a storm has produced swell, it will begin to travel (propagate) out into the ocean. As the swell propagates away from the generating area, two main things will happen to it. Firstly the waves will spread out and get smaller, a process called circumferential dispersion in other words, further the swell travels, the more it spread out. The width it spreads is directly proportional to the distance it has travelled. For every doubling of the propagation distance, the height reduces by about one third and it's something to watch out for if you're trying to predict the swell from a low that's thousands kilometers away.

Secondly, the swell will clean up and organise itself, an event known as "Radial dispersion". Waves size is affected by three major factors: The strength of the wind, its duration and the fetch "the distance over which the wind blows". Wave speed is governed by how far apart the crests are "their wavelength". The longer the wave length the faster they go. When a a swell is first generated, many different wavelengths are produced at the same time and the sea looks a mess. When the swell starts to propagate away, the faster, longer wavelengths progressively out-distance the shorter, slower ones. The waves in front are the clean swell lines, and the ones at the back are the short choppy ones with less power. So, if the low is a long distance offshore, when swell arrives its will break with more speed and power.

When waves hit the coast: If swell comes in square- on the coast, and there's not much of an continental shelf, it will 'jack up' when it suddenly hits shallow water. This effect is most noticeable on volcanic islands which rise rapidly from deep water, eg: The Canaries. As waves come into contact with the bottom, friction causes them slow down, although strangely enough, they don't really lose any of their energy. As they slow, they squash closer together. The time between the passing of one wave and the next known as "the period" must remain constant throughout the swell. When the slow down they must get closer together, just like a traffic queue coming into a bottle-neck, which is termed shoaling. it increases wave size and the effect is greater the steeper the shelf.

Refractions: Refraction is the word used to describes the way waves bend when they encounter obstacles. Think of a reek sticking out from a headland, with a deep-water bay next to the headland. When a swell line comes straight in towards the coast and strikes the reef, one half of the swell line will start to slow down as it hits. The section which is still traveling faster in deep-water therefore must bend towards the reef. More sucky and fatter. This is known as CONCAVE REFRACTION and often makes the waves shorter, with all the power concentrated in the peak.

The second main example of refraction is the typical point break where the breaking area faces almost the opposite direction to the main swell direction. In this example the swell lines have to wrap around headland before they break and have that 'fanned out' appearance. This is called CONVEX REFRACTION and spreads the wave over a wider area, producing smaller, less powerful waves which are usually longer and more lined up.
 

All info, photos & maps courtesy of:

Sahara Adventure Company, YEP Expeditions, The Zarzora Expedition (Colonel A. Mistikawy a.k.a. The Desert Fox)&(Wael Abed, The Other Egypt "Travels In No Man's Land"), Anthony Colas, C. Vivian, Frans Lemmens Photography, K Mohsen Photography, Advance Para gliders & Kites, Adham Compound Hotel, Siwa Shali Resort, The Greco Report, The Frank Goddio Society, Fliegel Jezerniczky Expeditions, Venomous Sand Boards, The Storm Rider Guide, The National Geographic society, The Mediterranean Data Base, NASA Applied Siences Directorate, Impossible Pictures, Mazag Productions, The W.W.W. & Local Bedouin Knowledge.
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