Effects of dust and meteorological variables on temperature inversion over Kuwait

Temperature inversion plays an essential role in the atmospheric thermal stability that affects the transportation and dispersion of pollutants. Little is known about the relationship between temperature inversion and meteorology in hot and dry arid climates. The relationship between temperature inversion with dust storms and meteorology is investigated in this study, in which the State of Kuwait has a hot arid environment. Hourly data on temperature inversion, dust storms, and meteorological variables (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, visibility, and solar radiation) were collected for 5 years (2013–2017). The Meteorological Temperature Profiler (MTP-5) model was used to calculate temperature inversions. Spearman’s non-parametric correlations ( r s ) were used to determine the relationship between temperature inversions and the five meteorological variables, while Fisher’s Exact Chi-square tests ( χ 2 ) were used to determine the relationship between temperature inversions and dust storms. The results showed that temperature inversions are very common in Kuwait. Temperature inversions generally develop after sunset and diminish after sunrise and are significantly correlated with high temperature and low relative humidity ( p ≤ 0.01). Temperature inversions were shown to be poorly correlated with dust storms ( χ 2 = 0.794, r s = 0.016). These findings indicate that nighttime, particularly during the spring and summer, creates good conditions for temperature inversions in arid regions and can lead to higher pollutant concentrations. These findings have implications for improving our understanding of air pollution and the contributing factors in hot arid environments.