Memories of Libya 1956 to 1959

Contributed by Trevor STUBBERFIELD 52A

Libyan Climate

This Article was rescued from a newspaper a few years ago.  Many old mates seem to have done a tour of Libya and will have experienced similar weather conditions there. The recorded temperature has been the subject of much debate over many years and all I can add is to confirm that in the conditions mentioned below it was indeed, very hot.

Normally the climate was very comfortable, summers were hot, dry, but bearable. Winters were quite cool, noticeable mainly because of the big difference between day and night temperatures. We wore KD during summer but during winter months we wore normal battle dress, even donning a greatcoat when doing guard duties through the night.

When my wife Mavis joined me for two years she asked what clothing she should bring, and thought I was joking when I said: “Bring your winter coats”. The first winter she was warm, laughing at me all wrapped up.  The next winter she wore the big coats, hat and scarf, and was surprised to find that inland, in the mountains, it was snowing and a few Arabs had died of exposure. Not quite the picture of the desert that most people think of.

World weather: where is the warmest place on earth?
Too hot to handle
IF YOU believe the reference books, the hottest place on our planet is a small Libyan town, Al ’Aziziyah, 20 miles inland of the capital, Tripoli, on the road that runs south into the Sahara desert. In 1913, a group of geologists working for the American National Geographical Society in Al ’Aziziyah established a weather-recording station; on	Phillip Eden		and it is not accepted by the Libyan authorities. Now, one might imagine that such a rejection is merely the predict-able response of a regime which despises all things American, even weather observations. In fact, it dates back to when the record was set; Libya was then occupied by the Italians and the director of the Libyan
September 13 1922, a temperature of 136F (57.8C) was recorded there. How-ever, controversy surrounds that figure,		Meteorogical Service at the time, Dr A Fantoli, thought that the reading was un-acceptably high.
Some like it hot: winds from the Sahara cause the high readings in Libya
Even after 80 years, we can find both evidence to support the record and reasons to reject it. The geographical setting of Al ’Aziziyah favours abnor-mally high readings under the right meteorological conditions. It lies to the lee of a steep escarpment, some 2,000 feet high, which marks the northern flank of the Jabal Nafusah mountain range. When the wind blows strongly from the Sahara desert, the air is forced to climb over the Nafusah hill from where it descends to the Gefarah plain. During this descent, the air is warmed by compression, and if the air was moist enough to deposit some rain over the high ground (very rare, but by no means impossible in this part of the Sahara) that warming process would be particularly efficient. These were the prevailing conditions on the day in question. However, one would expect that abnormally high tem-		peratures would also have been recorded at neighbouring stations; but at Tripoli the day’s maximum was 113F (45C) – a huge difference. When we probe deeper among the records, we discover some fascinating discrepancies. Before the Second World War there were three weather stations in the area: Tripoli, Al ’Aziziyah and, roughly halfway between the two, Castel Benito at Idris. During this period Al ’Aziziyah’s hottest days averaged 11F (6C) higher than those at Idris and 16F (9C) higher than Tripoli’s. When the stations reopened after the war, Al ‘Azi-ziyah 2F (1C) lower than Idris and 4F (2C) higher than Tripoli in extreme conditions. It is impossible to be dogmatic, but the change is consistent with a faulty thermometer, a damaged thermometer-screen, an over-sheltered site, or a com-bination of all three.

Published: 1st February 2008.

Latest Update: 16th July 2013.

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