Oman Geography & Climate

Oman occupies the south-eastern corner of the Arabian peninsula, about 310,000 square kilometres, with some 3,165 kilometres of coastline on the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea — and, unusually, a piece of territory detached from the rest.

Musandam

The northern peninsula at the Strait of Hormuz is separated from the rest of Oman by the UAE. Mountains drop straight into deep inlets that look like fjords but are drowned river valleys, and the strait itself is the chokepoint through which a large share of the world’s seaborne oil passes.

The Hajar mountains

A range of bare limestone and ophiolite running behind the northern coast, rising to Jebel Shams at about three thousand metres above a canyon often compared to the Grand Canyon. The rock here is unusual: sections of ocean crust and mantle thrust up onto land, which makes Oman a destination for geologists.

Wadis and the falaj

Valleys cutting through the mountains hold permanent pools fed by springs and groundwater. The falaj — gravity-fed channels carrying water tens of kilometres from the mountains to the oases, some two thousand years old and still running — are UNESCO-listed.

Desert

The interior runs into the Rub’ al Khali, the Empty Quarter, and the Wahiba Sands are a compact dune field east of it. Between them lie gravel plains and salt flats.

Dhofar

The far south is a different world: an escarpment behind Salalah that catches the Indian monsoon, with wooded slopes, seasonal waterfalls and the frankincense trees that made the region rich.

Oman is hot and arid across most of its territory, with one genuinely unusual exception in the far south.

The northern winter

October to April is the season: days between 25 and 30°C in Muscat, cooler inland, and nights that are pleasant on the coast and cold in the desert and the mountains. Almost all the year’s rain falls in these months, in a handful of short downpours.

The northern summer

May to September brings 40 to 48°C in the interior and high humidity on the coast, which makes Muscat in August among the more uncomfortable capitals anywhere. Nights stay above 30°C.

The khareef

Dhofar, in the far south, catches the edge of the Indian Ocean monsoon between late June and early September. Mist rolls off the escarpment, drizzle falls for weeks, waterfalls run and the hills turn green — a temperate interlude of around 25°C in the hottest part of the Arabian year. It is the only place on the peninsula where this happens, and it is the reason Salalah fills with Gulf visitors in August.

The mountains

Jebel Akhdar and Jebel Shams are ten to fifteen degrees cooler than the coast, which is why the roses grow and why a night there in winter needs proper clothing — frost occurs.

Flash floods

Rain in the mountains fills the wadis within minutes, and vehicles are swept away every year. Never camp in a wadi bed or cross running water, and check the forecast for the whole catchment rather than for where you are standing.

Cyclones

Oman is exposed to Arabian Sea cyclones, most likely in May to June and October to November, which have caused serious damage in Muscat and Dhofar.