Bahrain's winter is expected to finally arrive today, with met office experts forecasting rain and cold weather.

Temperatures are likely to drop to a maximum of 17C by Thursday, they said.

The first shamaal winds of the season are also expected today with wind speeds possibly touching 30 knots, said Civil Aviation Affairs meteorology affairs assistant-undersecretary Abdul Majeed Isa.

'Considering the winter has been somewhat delayed this time, these are cold conditions,' Isa told our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN).

'There will also be a spattering of rain over the next two days with light to moderate showers all over the country.'

He said that the weather conditions were the result of an upper trough moving from west to the east and bringing with it the cold front.

'There will be some rain, but that will move on quickly. We could, however, have two moderately wet days,' said Isa, who added Bahrain had so far enjoyed a mild winter with temperatures reaching 26C.

'In the absence of rain, the weather will be hazy with rising sand in several areas.'

He said that the minimum temperature expected today was 17C, but this would continue to fall over the next few days to 14C on Thursday.

'Once the cold front passes, it will begin to get warmer, but the shamaal winds would continue, though not with so much severity.'

Meanwhile, unsettled weather in Lebanon resulted in a Gulf Air flight from Bahrain to Beirut, with 57 passengers on board, being diverted to neighbouring Damascus, Syria, on Saturday.

It follows heavy rain and fierce winds that had battered parts of the Middle East, causing chaos in Lebanon and Egypt among other countries.

The storm also caused temperatures to plummet in several parts ending weeks of unreasonably warm and dry weather across the region.

A woman in a northern Lebanon town died when an uprooted palm tree fell on her car on Saturday. A Gulf Air official said though weather conditions at several places in the region continued to be unsettled, there were no major disruptions yesterday.-TradeArabia News Service