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DESERT STORM 22 January 1991

General Weather Both the weak low near the Strait of Hormuz
and the eashwest cold front over central Saudi Arabia continued to
weaken. Easterly to east-northeasterly low-level wands continued
to bang moisture to  west central and northwest Saudi Arabia. A
weakening low in Mediterranean Sea continued  to
move slowly east-northeastward toward Syria and southern Turkey.
The subtropical jet stream slowly weakened but it continued to
bring middle and high clouds northeastward across the Amman
peninsula into Kuwait and southwestern Iran.

Area of Interest  Broken low Clouds between 3,000 and 6000
feet, along with multilayered broken middle and high clouds from
8,000 to 27,000 feet, persisted over extreme northern Iraq, Syria,
northern Jordan, Israel and Lebanon. By evening, the low and
middle cloud layers with tops to 18,000 feet had moved
southwestward into the northern Sinai Broken low clouds, with
bases of 2,000-4,000 feet and tops to 6,000 feet had formed over
the northwestern half of Iran by 1500Z. Multilayered broken middle
and high clouds persisted over southwestern Iraq, the southern
Persian gulf and central Saudi Arabia from 10,000 to 28,000 feet.
Visibilities remained good except where mountains were obscured
by cloud. Isolated rain (snow above 5000 feet) fell over the
mountains of northern Iraq, southern Turkey western Syria, and
Lebanon. Visibilities were as low as 500 meters in snow over
higher mountains.

Ares of Intense Interest Fog and low clouds again pursisted all
night over northeastern Saudi Arabia the northern Saudi Arabian
Persian Gulf coast and extreme southwestern Iraq. Ceilings were
again from near zero to 500 feet. Low clouds slowly lifted and
dissipated, moving to a small area southwest of Kuwait by late
morning. Bases were now 3,000 feet, with tops to 7,000 feet
Isolated thunderstorms, with bases as low as 2,000 feet formed in
late morning and early afternoon in extreme northeastern Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, the northern Persian Gulf, and southwestern Iraq.  
Tops reached 40,000 feet.  Layered broken middle and high clouds
persisted from 10,000to 27,000 feet throughout the day over
ntml and northeastern Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and extreme
Southwestern Iraq. Iraq northwest of Basrah was clear. A visual
DROP satellite image (Figure 3-7) taken shortly after sunrise in
Kuwait shows layered Clouds with embedded thunder storms over
northern Saudi Arabia the Persian Gulf and southwestern Iran.

3-16

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