(Image source from: Theemiratestimes.com)
Rains disrupt Dubai completely:- Late on Monday night, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) experienced an unprecedented thunderstorm, resulting in the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in the country. Tragically, one person lost their life and homes and businesses suffered significant damage. The storm caused such disruption that air travel in Dubai came to a standstill. The state-run WAM news agency described this rainfall as a "historic weather event," surpassing any previously documented data since 1949. This is particularly remarkable considering the arid nature of the UAE, which is situated on the Arabian Peninsula. Although heavy rains are rare in this region, they do occur occasionally during the cooler winter months. The thunderstorms began on Monday night and continued until Tuesday evening, pouring more than 142 millimetres (mm) of rain onto the usually dry city of Dubai. To put this into perspective, it typically takes a year and a half for Dubai to receive this amount of rainfall. On average, Dubai International Airport, the second busiest airport in the world, records 94.7 millimetres of rain annually. In response to the heavy rains, air travel was severely disrupted, with flights being diverted or delayed. The airport authorities even had to temporarily suspend operations for 25 minutes on Tuesday afternoon.
As of late Tuesday, disruptions persisted until Wednesday. In an interview with the Associated Press, an anonymous couple described the situation at the airport as complete chaos. According to the man, "You can't find a taxi. There are people sleeping in the Metro station. There are people sleeping in the airport." Throughout Dubai, homes were submerged and vehicles were left abandoned on the roads. Even popular shopping centers like Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates experienced flooding. To address the issue, tanker trucks were dispatched to pump out the water from the streets and highways. Al Ain, located approximately 130 kilometers away from Dubai, recorded an unprecedented rainfall of 254 mm. Similarly, Fujairah, situated on the UAE's eastern coast, received 145 mm of rain on Tuesday. As a result, schools across the UAE were closed on Tuesday, and the Dubai government extended its work from home policy for employees until Wednesday. Oman, the UAE's neighboring country, also faced heavy rainfall, which tragically claimed the lives of 18 individuals, including some school children who were swept away in a vehicle alongside an adult.
The main cause of these torrential rains was a storm system that traversed the Arabian peninsula and made its way across the Gulf of Oman. According to a report from the AP, meteorologists at the National Center for Meteorology conducted multiple cloud-seeding flights prior to the rainfall. Cloud seeding is a method where salt mixtures are sprayed into clouds to encourage condensation and ultimately lead to rain.
