Autumn Has Finally Arrived In The UAE, But The Heat Is Still Stuck At 45°C! Here’s Why

If you stepped outside this morning and it still felt exactly like summer, you weren’t imagining it. The UAE technically crossed into autumn in the early hours of Wednesday, as the September equinox hit at 4.06am UAE time, the moment the sun sits directly above the equator before shifting south for winter in the Northern Hemisphere. And yet, the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) is forecasting highs of up to 45°C today.

Autumn On The Calendar, Summer In The Air

The equinox marks the point when day and night come closest to equal length everywhere on Earth, and it’s the official marker that the region has begun tilting away from the sun. On paper, it’s the year’s biggest seasonal turning point. On the ground, though, the NCM’s latest bulletin shows little sign of a shift: internal areas are expected to hit 43°C to 45°C today, coastal and island regions 37°C to 42°C, and even the usually milder mountain belt sitting at 29°C to 35°C, noticeably warmer than this time last year.

How The Heat Breaks Down By Emirate

Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Abu Dhabi city fall under the “coastal and islands” band, with highs of 37°C to 42°C easing to lows of 27°C to 33°C overnight. Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah track a similar range, though the high ground around Jebel Jais offers the coolest air in the country, with highs of just 29°C to 35°C. Inland, in Al Ain, Liwa and Al Dhafra, the mercury climbs hardest, touching 43°C to 45°C, with lows only easing to the low 20s overnight.

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Humidity, Fog And What’s Coming Next

Skies should stay fair to partly cloudy, with humidity climbing sharply overnight to 70 to 90 per cent, raising the odds of mist forming over western areas by Thursday morning. Winds will be light to moderate from the southeast to northeast, occasionally freshening to 30-35 km/h inland. Rather than an immediate cool-down, the NCM’s four-day outlook actually points to temperatures ticking up slightly on Thursday before settling into a fair, partly cloudy pattern through the weekend, with humid nights and early morning fog risk persisting through Sunday.

The takeaway: the equinox is an astronomical event, not a weather switch. In the UAE, the real transition tends to unfold gradually over the following weeks as nights lengthen and humidity patterns shift, so today will look and feel a lot like the summer everyone’s ready to leave behind, with more noticeable cooling still some weeks away.

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