Reading
You are planning to take your grandmother on a trip to North Africa and the Middle East. Your first stop over is in Tunisia توِنس where you will visit three main places: Tunis تونِس , Tabarka طَبَرقة and the island of Djerba جِربة. You will then visit Cairo القاهِرة, Egypt, and Riyadh الرِّياض , Saudi Arabia.
To help your granny pack the right clothes, you decided to get acquainted with the weather conditions in Tunisia, the Mediterranean and Arab World regions for this season by logging on to the Tunisian website of the National Institute of Meteorology المَعهَد الوَطَنيّ للرَّصد الجَوّي.
The weather forecast is provided under التَّوَقُّعات بِالمُدُن.
Follow these four steps for the fastest results:
- Log on to the National Institute of Meteorology
- For a forecast in different Tunisian cities, look for the icon with the map of Tunisia in the middle section of the top part of the page and click on التَّوَقُّعات بِالمُدُن
in the top left corner. A map of Tunisia with a city by city weather forecast for the day will show. To see the hottest temperatures, click on دَرَجة الحَرارة العُليا
in the light green area. To see the coolest temperatures, click on دَرَجة الحَرارة الدُّنيا
also in the light green area. If you want to see the weather summary again, click on الظواهر الجوّيّة
. Now, write down the weather conditions in تونِس ,طَبَرقة and جِربة.
Make sure to record the temperatures as well as information you find out by looking at the symbols used for the weather forecasts (Click on الرُّموز below the green box for an explanation of the symbols). To check out tomorrow’s weather, click on الغَد and repeat the same steps.
- Now click on الرَّصدات بالمُدُن الأَجنَبِيّة
to view the weather in foreign cities and check the conditions in القاهِرة and الرِّياض. Notice that only one temperature reading is given followed by an icon symbolizing a summary of the weather forecast or “condition of the sky” حالة السَّماء
. Take all the information down.
- Before showing the results of your search to your granny you decided to check them with your instructor by e-mail (write down the names of the 5 towns/cities, the temperature in each city in centigrade and Fahrenheit, and a few words containing a brief Arabic weather forecast for the day).
Reading Tip 1
To convert temperatures from centigrade نِسبة مِئَوِيّة to Fahrenheit فارِنْهايت, multiply the temperature by two and add 30, e.g., 15 C is about 60 F. Form Fahrenheit to centigrade, substract 30 and divide by two.
Reading Tip 2
If you want to navigate around this site further, you will find clues for the Arabic text by clicking the English or French option on the top left corner of the home page.