Climate, Plant Life and the Weather

Here is a brief description of Qatar for our friends and family.  Hope this helps to paint a picture of our home away from home for you!

Qatar is surrounded on three sides by the waters of the Arabian Gulf and it connects to the south by land to Saudi Arabia. It is considered a subtropical desert with temperatures up to the 50's celsius and very humid (summer is June to September) and winters around 15-20 celsius (December and January). The rest of the months, I hear, are pretty pleasant.  The highest temp I've seen so far is 49.5 (which is 123 degrees farenheit!).

For the most part, Qatar has arid conditions and mostly contains sand dunes and rocky hills. According to the Qatar Embassy the average rain fall is 81 millimeters (that's about 3 inches), but most people I've talked to say they haven't seen rain in a while.

Halophyte

It seems to me that most of the plant life here has been brought in from somewhere else and maintained meticulously. What plants are native to here are mostly desert plants. According to the Qatar Embassy dwarf succulent shrubs, few tree species, and perennial grasses are most common in the desert. Halophytes are most common on the coast line. Apparently Qatar has 7 types of them too.

Sand storms also occur. I have experienced a few of those since I came here in May. You can barely see the buildings in the distance here because of the sand storm.