Did cloud-seeding contribute to Sunday’s wild winter weather?

Dark clouds filled the skies and water flooded the streets as the season’s first winter storms hit the UAE on Sunday.

A few hours earlier, pilots took off from Al Ain airport, firing salt flares into the base of a cloud in the hopes of increasing rainfall.

Officials said the cloud-seeding operations were carried out between Saturday morning and Sunday morning.

“We just enhance the cloud,” said Khalid Al Obeidli, the head of the programme at the National Centre of Meteorology.

“We can seed as long as there are clouds and it’s suitable for seeding. We started seeding on Saturday when the [weather] system affected the UAE,” he said.

Cloud seeding is a scientific way to increase rainfall in the Emirates, where precipitation averages about 100mm a year and natural aquifers are dwindling.

Particles fired into the cloud attract water droplets, which collide and eventually become rain. Cloud seeding can increase the size of the cloud itself.

Meteorologists monitor clouds carefully and do not seed if heavy rain is forecast, to reduce the risk of floods. Most operations take place from July to September.

Social media users were quick to claim cloud seeding caused Sunday’s downpours.

Studies are inconclusive – all that is known is that cloud seeding enhances rainfall. But quantifying the impact of the technique is impossible.

Cloud seeding is a way to increase rainfall in the Emirates, where precipitation averages about 100mm a year

Meteorologists believe that from 2001 to 2002, cloud seeding increased rainfall by 15 to 25 per cent.

National rainfall figures date from 2003 but oral history and traditional almanacs give detailed accounts of November rains.

Ask anyone who has lived in the UAE for a few decades and they will assure you that big winter storms, and flooding, are the norm.