The named winter storms in the order they come around, on the dates the Alexandria Port Authority publishes — an almanac of when a nawwa is due, not a forecast that one will arrive.
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Alexandria does not call the winter "rainy". It names the storms. A nawwa (نوّة, plural nawwāt) is a named spell of wind and rain in a sequence the city has kept for generations, and the Alexandria Port Authority publishes the list: the date each one is due, how many days it usually runs, which way the wind blows, and what kind of weather goes with it.
Read this as an almanac, not a forecast. The table says a nawwa is due on a date. It does not say a storm will arrive — a nawwa can pass with almost nothing, and rain can come on a day no nawwa is listed. For what the weather is actually going to do, use a weather forecast.
It is worth knowing anyway, because the rain here is concentrated. Alexandria gets about 168 mm of rain a year and roughly 87% of it falls between October and March. The city has 32,000 street gullies, 120,000 manholes and 66 outfalls straight to the sea, and keeps 155 suction tankers on standby when a storm is coming — and the main roads still flood.
Published tables differ from one another by a day or two. This one follows the Port Authority's own كشف النوات, read from the Arabic column; where a newspaper table disagrees, the entry says so.
In 62 days
Riyah al-Salib — the winds of the Cross, in September
Three days, westerly wind, listed as hot.
The Port Authority's table lists riyah al-Salib twice, at the end of September and again in late October. Its English column mislabels both rows; the Arabic column is the one to read.
20–22 October 2026
Three days, westerly wind, listed as not rainy.
16–19 November 2026
Four days, north-westerly wind, listed as very rainy. It is the first of the winter nawwāt in the Port Authority's order.
22–25 November 2026
Four days, south-westerly wind, listed as rainy. It is the tail of al-Miknasa.
4–8 December 2026
Five days, south-westerly wind, listed as coming with storms.
19–23 December 2026
Five days, north-westerly wind, listed as coming with rain.
Some newspaper tables print 18 December. The Port Authority's own list gives 19 December.
How these dates work
Fixed dates — feast days, holidays — recur every year and are worked out forward from today, so this stays right without updates. Dates marked as approximate move year to year. The exact hours, and whether an event runs at all in a given year, are set by the host: confirm with them before you set out.
Fuller calendars: Alexandria Port Authority — كشف النوات (Arabic) — The official table this page is built from · Alexandria Port Authority — storms table (English) — The same table in English, but several rows carry the wrong name — read the Arabic one
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28–29 December 2026
Two days, westerly wind, listed as very rainy.
Some newspaper tables print 29 December. The Port Authority's own list gives 28 December.
2–5 January 2027
Four days, westerly wind, listed as rainy.
Some newspaper tables print this one as starting on 1 January. The Port Authority's own list gives 2 January.
12–17 January 2027
Six days, south-westerly wind, listed as very rainy. It is the heaviest of the season and the one the papers report on most.
Al-Masry Al-Youm carried the same figures on 6 January 2026, citing the Port Authority's statement: 12 January, six days, south-westerly wind, heavy rain, rough sea and high waves.
19–21 January 2027
Three days, westerly wind, listed as rainy. Named for the Coptic feast of the Baptism.
28 January–3 February 2027
Seven days, westerly wind, listed as heavy rain. It runs from the end of January into the first days of February.
18–20 February 2027
Three days, north-westerly wind, listed as rainy.
Not the same as al-Shams al-Kubra, the greater sun, which is a month later on 18 March. Some newspaper tables run the two together.
2–3 March 2027
Two days, south-westerly wind, listed as rainy.
9–15 March 2027
Seven days, south-westerly wind, listed as mostly rainy.
18–19 March 2027
Two days, easterly wind, listed as mostly rainy.
24–29 March 2027
Six days, easterly wind, listed as mostly rainy. It is the last of the cold-season nawwāt in the Port Authority's order.
23–24 April 2027
Two days, easterly wind, listed as hot — the khamasin winds running up to Sham el-Nessim.
18–19 June 2027
Two days, easterly wind, listed as hot.