The desert nation of United Arab Emirates (UAE) on April 16 witnessed the heaviest rainfall in 75 years flooding major highways and disrupting flights at Dubai International Airport.
The government described it as the largest amount of rainfall in the past 75 years. The UAE government media office said that the downpours were an “exceptional” climate event and more rains are also expected.
At least one person, a 70-year-old man, was killed after being swept away in his car in Ras Al Khaimah, one of the UAE’s seven emirates, police confirmed.
The rains started on Monday night, and by Tuesday evening, more than 142mm (5.59in) of rain was already recorded. The desert city of Dubai normally gets this much rain in a year and a half.
The National Center of Meteorology (NCM), which oversees cloud-seeding operations in the UAE, confirmed that the record-breaking rainfall was an exceptional event in UAE’s climatic history.
The highest amount of rainfall was 254.8 mm (10 inches) within 24 hours recorded in Al Ain’s Khutum Al Shakla area, according to the state’s media office statement. Floodwater also poured into some homes, forcing people to bail out their houses.
The NCM in a post on X urged residents to “take all the precautions … and to stay away from areas of flooding and water accumulation”.
Flight disruptions
Heavy rainfall forced the Dubai International Airport (DXB), one of the world’s busiest, to divert arriving flights on Tuesday evening until weather conditions improved. Departure operations followed the schedule.
FlyDubai suspended its flights departing from Dubai until Wednesday morning.
“All FlyDubai flights scheduled for departure from Dubai this evening (16 April) have been canceled effective immediately until 10:00 (Dubai local time) on 17 April. During this period, passengers who do not have Dubai as their final destination will not be accepted for travel,” a FlyDubai spokesperson was quoted as saying.
EgyptAir suspended flights between Cairo and Dubai until the conditions improve.
Schools and offices closed
Schools were closed across the UAE on Tuesday and Wednesday due to forecasted storms. The government of Dubai also extended remote working for its employees through Wednesday due to weather.
Authorities also sent tanker trucks out into the streets and highways to pump away the water.
Rainfall was also recorded in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar, but the precipitation was particularly significant in the UAE.
Cat rescued from floodwaters
In a heartwarming video shared on social, media, a cat clinging to a car’s door handle while submerged in Dubai’s floodwaters was rescued by the Dubai police.
The state-run WAM news agency called the rain “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.”
Cloud seeding
Some media reports speculated that the rains might have been worsened by cloud seeding. However, the National Center of Meteorology (NCM), responsible for cloud-seeding operations in the UAE, clarified that no missions had been conducted for seeding operations before or during the turbulent weather episode.
“We did not engage in any seeding operations during this particular weather event. The essence of cloud seeding lies in targeting clouds at an earlier stage, prior to precipitation. Engaging in seeding activities during a severe thunderstorm scenario would prove futile,” Omar Al Yazeedi, the deputy director general of the NCM, said.
Maarten Ambaum, a professor of atmospheric physics and dynamics at the University of Reading, also said that that the NCM meteorologists had denied cloud seeding had taken place.
Cloud seeding is a common practice in the Emirates to encourage clouds to produce precipitation by releasing salt particles into the air using planes.