Windshear analysis over six airports in Saudi Arabia

Abstract The windshear (WS) or wind gradient is a short-lived microscale or meso-gamma weather phenomenon and is potentially very dangerous for aviation everywhere. This research presents the calculation of WS frequency and intensity from radiosonde data at six airport stations namely Abha, Jeddah, Madinah, Tabuk, Riyadh, and Dammam airport in Saudi Arabia for the period 1991–2020. The frequency and intensity of WS indicate that the number of severe WS increased suddenly from 2015 below 30 m level at all stations except for Riyadh there is no sudden increase. At all other levels, the number of light WS increased from bottom to up to ~ 900 m and then gradually decreased at 1200 m irrespective of stations. Overall, the highest WS observed in the autumn season for all stations except it is in summer for Jeddah. The occurrence of WS is higher in the daytime as compared to the nighttime round the year for Dammam, Madinah, Riyad, and Tabuk while the pattern is opposite for Jeddah. In Abha, it depends on the season. The sudden increase of severe WS from 2015 can be linked to the increase of building areas surrounded the airport. However, further investigation is required to understand the large number of severe WS and its relation to climate change in the region along with teleconnection to the large-scale circulations.