Dubai mopping up after months of rain fall in day
‘A historic weather event’ sweeps across desert nation of UAE
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The desert nation of the United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Wednesday from the heaviest rain ever recorded there after a deluge flooded Dubai International Airport, disrupting flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel.
The state-run WAM news agency called the rain Tuesday “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.” That’s before the discovery of crude oil in this energy-rich nation then part of a British protectorate known as the Trucial States.
Rain also fell in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. However, the rains were acute across the UAE.
The flooding sparked speculation that cloud seeding — flying small planes through clouds dispersing chemicals aimed at getting rain to fall — may have caused the deluge. But experts said the storm systems that produced the rain were forecast well in advance and that cloud seeding would not have caused such flooding.
Several reports quoted meteorologists at the National Center for Meteorology as saying they flew six or seven cloud-seeding flights before the rains. Flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed one aircraft affiliated with the UAE’S cloud-seeding efforts flew around the country Monday.
The National, an English-language, statelinked newspaper in Abu Dhabi, quoted an anonymous official at the center Wednesday as saying no cloud seeding took place Tuesday, without acknowledging any earlier flights.
The center did not respond to questions Wednesday from the AP.
The UAE, which heavily relies on energy-hungry desalination plants to provide water, conducts cloud seeding in part to increase its dwindling, limited groundwater.
But Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections, said the flooding in Dubai was caused by an unusually strong low pressure system that drove many rounds of heavy thunderstorms.
“You don’t need cloud seeding’s influence to account for the record deluge in Dubai,” Masters said.
Scientists also say climate change in general is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme storms, droughts, floods and wildfires around the world. Dubai hosted the United Nations’ COP28 climate talks just last year. Rising temperatures and other effects of global warming long have been viewed as a threat to life in the already-baking region.
The rains began late Monday, soaking the sands and roadways of Dubai with some 0.79 inches of rain, according to meteorological data collected at Dubai International Airport. The storms intensified around 9 a.m. local Tuesday and continued throughout the day, dumping more rain and hail onto the city.
By the end of Tuesday, more than 5.59 inches of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours. An average year sees 3.73 inches of rain at Dubai International Airport, a hub for the longhaul carrier Emirates.
At the airport, standing water lapped on taxiways as aircraft landed. Arrivals were halted Tuesday night, and passengers struggled to reach terminals.
One couple, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to speak freely in a country with strict laws that criminalize critical speech, called the situation at the airport “absolute carnage.”
“You cannot get a taxi. There’s people sleeping in the Metro station. There’s people sleeping in the airport,” the man said.
They ended up getting a taxi to near their home some 18 miles away, but floodwater on the road stopped them. A bystander helped them over a highway barrier with their carry-on luggage.
Dubai International Airport acknowledged Wednesday that the flooding had left “limited transportation options” and affected flights as aircraft crews couldn’t reach the airfield.
“Recovery will take some time,” the airport said on the social platform X, formerly Twitter.
Passengers on Flydubai, Emirates’ low-cost companion airline, also faced disruptions.
Paul Griffiths, the airport’s CEO, acknowledged continued issues with flooding Wednesday morning, saying every place an aircraft could be safely parked was taken. Some aircraft had been diverted to Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, the city-state’s second airfield.
“In living memory, I don’t think anyone has ever seen conditions like it,” Griffiths told the state-owned talk radio station Dubai Eye.
Schools across the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, largely shut down ahead of the storm, and government employees were largely working remotely, if able.