Page 32 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 1,2

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! PHYSICAL FEATURES 17 i
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the interior of the peninsula. Oman has sufficient periodic rains;
while, all along the ridge of the western watershed heavy storm-
prccipitation occurs from time to time (e. g. at Mecca, chiefly during
summer). For the rest, tIvc most favoured region is the northern
Nefud with Jebel Shammar. This region, thanks to the absence of
very high ground op the north-west, gets sprinklings of winter and
spring rains off the Mediterranean, and produces a regular spring
herbage: it has, in fact, a rainfall somewhat below that of the
Egyptian Deltjj. But precipitation on the rest of the central mass
thins rapidly to the alinost negative record of Upper Egypt. The
greater part of'lhe South Desert probably gets no more than an hour
or so of drizzle once in every three or four years.
. The other main feature of Arabian climate is, of course, heat.
The southern half of the peninsula is included in the zone of maxi­
mum Julv-August temperature. But the effect of this on man
depends largely on the elevation of the district in which he happens
to be, and the direction of its exposure. The hottest regions are the
Oman coast and the littoral (Tihamah) of Yemen : but the Gulf shore
in. general and the Indian Ocean littoral are hardly in better case,
''and there,.is little more to be said for the climate of th*e Asir and
Hejaz shores*
*.
Snow usually appears on the highest crests of Jebel Shammar
once or twice in winter, and occasionally lies on the northern Nefud
(as, e. g., in February 1911) ; but it is a marvel anywhere else in the
peninsula. The Yemen highlands and the rest qf the western ridge
know frost but not snow, precipitation seldom or never taking place
there in the winter months.

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