Local Information

To make the most of your time in Dubai, it's worth knowing a little about the locality. This site gives you some useful information about the language, climate, local time and public holidays.

Language

The official language of the country is Arabic, although English is the official business language. English is widely used and most road and shop signs, restaurant menus, etc are in both languages.

Climate

Dubai has a sub-tropical, arid climate. May - October are the warmest months with temperatures reaching the high 40's and high humidity, the rest of the year temperatures fall any where between the mid 20's - 30's.

Rainfall is infrequent falling mainly in the cooler months around November to March.

Local Time

The UAE is four hours ahead of GMT. There is no summer time saving when clocks are altered.

Public Holidays

The Islamic year is called the Hijri and dates are followed by AH - After Hijra. The Hijri calendar is based on lunar months. There are 354 or 355 days in the Hijri year, which is divided into 12 lunar months and each year is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian year.

As some holidays are based on the sighting of the moon and not fixed dates on the Hijri calendar, the dates of Islamic holidays are imprecise, with holidays frequently being confirmed less than 24 hours in advance. Some non-religious holidays are fixed according to the Gregorian calendar.