The reason behind Dubai’s heavy rainfall and floods

Beyond the Desert: Dubai's Unexpected Rainfall and Floods Unveiled

Written by: Supriya Kadu

Edited by: Omkar Devadkar

Last Updated: April 18, 2024

Summary: Over the past 24 hours, record-breaking rains in Dubai have given rise to false rumors involving cloud seeding being the reason for floods.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported the heaviest rainfall ever after a strong rainstorm hit the country late Monday (April 15), killing at least one person, causing damage to houses and businesses, and bringing air transport to a halt in Dubai. At least twenty people have been found dead in the flooding in Oman.

The storm first hit Oman on Sunday before hitting the UAE on Tuesday, cutting out electricity and causing massive flight disruptions as runways turned into rivers. In the UAE, 254 millimeters (10 inches) of rainfall was recorded at Al Ain, a city bordering Oman. It was the largest in 24 hours since records began in 1949.

Rainfall is unusual in the UAE and elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula, which is best known for its dry, desert climate. Summer air temperatures can exceed 50 degrees Celsius there.

Following the day's events, there were questions over whether cloud seeding, a common practice in the UAE, could have caused severe rainfall.

But what exactly is cloud seeding?

Cloud seeding is the process of changing existing clouds to improve the possibilities for rainfall. This can be done by using aircraft to drop small particles (such as silver iodide) into clouds. Water vapor will therefore condense more easily, resulting in rain.

The practice has been known for decades, and the UAE has been using it in recent years to deal with water scarcity.

In the hours following the floods, some social media users mistakenly linked the disastrous storm to recent cloud seeding attempts in the country. Bloomberg previously reported that cloud-seeding aircraft were set up on both Sunday and Monday, but not on Tuesday when the floods happened.

According to experts, the heavy rainfall was most likely caused by an everyday climate pattern expanded by climate change. Climate experts believe that rising global temperatures, caused by human-made climate change, are causing more extreme weather events around the world, particularly heavy rainfall.