Large and regional-scale processes influencing Heat Waves: Insights from Qatar

Qatar faces rising temperatures and more frequent extreme heat waves (HWs), highlighting its vulnerability to climate change. This study presents a comprehensive assessment of HW characteristics over Qatar, associated mechanisms, and land-atmosphere feedback during 2003-2024. HWs are identified using the 95th percentile of daily maximum temperature lasting at least three consecutive days. A total of 32 HW events are detected at Al Udeid station, mostly between May and September, with a gradual increase of 0.1 events per year. HWs occur under cloud-free conditions (OLR anomalies 0-8 W/m & sup2;) and weak surface pressure anomalies (similar to-1.25 hPa) relative to the 2003-2024 climatology, forming a strong vertically coupled heat dome from the surface to 900 hPa. This structure is sustained by upper-level subsidence, a mid-tropospheric inversion, and weak surface updrafts. Land-atmosphere interactions further intensify HWs through enhanced sensible heat flux, reduced latent heat flux, and low soil moisture, limiting evaporative cooling. Suppressed moisture transport, dry boundary-layer conditions, and widespread subsidence create a thermally stratified and dynamically stable atmosphere, reinforced by anticyclonic vorticity anomalies. These insights enhance understanding of extreme heat dynamics in arid regions and offer valuable inputs for improving HW prediction and climate resilience strategies in Qatar, specifically, and the Arabian Peninsula in general.