Hussein Al Qahtani, spokesman of the National Centre for Meteorology (NCM), said this year’s Hajj marks the end of the Hajj season coinciding with the summer months.

Mr Al Qahtani said that in 2026, the annual Islamic pilgrimage will gradually move into milder seasons — spring, winter, and autumn — offering cooler conditions for millions of worshippers each year.

The spokesman noted that the next eight Hajj seasons will occur during spring, followed by eight more in winter, then in autumn with gradually rising temperatures, before returning to summer after approximately 25 years.

The NCM spokesperson cited that this shift is due to the lunar calendar cycle, which offers pilgrims the opportunity to perform Hajj rituals in more moderate weather conditions during the coming years.

NCM has released a 25-year Hajj calendar outlining how the pilgrimage dates, based on the Hijri (Islamic) calendar, will align with the Gregorian calendar seasons through to 2050.

Due to the lunar nature of the Hijri calendar, which is approximately 11 days shorter than the Gregorian year, the Hajj shifts earlier each year.

He said pilgrims performing Hajj will not experience the searing heat of summer again for another quarter of a century.

Mr Al Qhatani said pilgrims will benefit from increasingly favourable weather conditions until the pilgrimage eventually returns to the summer months in 2050.

(NAN)