7.2
Climate
There are no climatic stations in the Rum area.
The closest stations are in Aqaba and Ma’an, both of which are over 60km away
and are not representative of the study area. Generally the climate in Rum is of
the dry desert type with a wide range of annual variation between daytime
temperatures. During the summer, temperatures range from 15-45 C, whereas in
winter, daily temperature ranges from 16-31C, dropping to less than 5C at night.
Annual precipitation is low, usually between 50-100 mm and concentrated in the
wintering months.
7.3 Topography
The
Protected Area is a tract of huge, precipitous, sandstone and granite mountains,
reaching a height of 1754m on Jebel Rum, the highest mountain in the protected
area and the second highest mountain in the country. The mountains in the
protected area are separated from each other by flat, sandy ‘corridor’-wadis.
The northern part of Wadi Rum Protected Area comprises four major wadi systems,
running roughly parallel on a north-south orientation at an elevation of between
800-1100m. These wadis are (from west to east) Wadi Marsad, Wadi Rumman, Wadi
Rum, Wadi Um-‘Ishrin and Wadi Mahraj and Wadi Um-Harraq. To the south of these
wadis lies an open sandy area of isolated peaks and mobile sand dunes known
locally as Hadbat Qara. Further east is a more closed network of smaller wadis
with numerous small mountains and rocky outcrops beyond Jebel Khaz’ali, this
area extends to Jebel Burdah in the east and Um Muqour in the south (see map 3).
