Unusual heavy rainfall in the desert city of Dubai caused chaos and flooding on Tuesday, bringing the city to a standstill. The Dubai airport had to suspend operations for 25 minutes due to the intense rainfall, which flooded major highways and even the airport runways.
According to meteorological data collected at Dubai International Airport, the city received a year and a half’s worth of rain within just 24 hours. The rains began late Monday and intensified on Tuesday, with more than 142 millimetres (5.59 inches) of rainfall soaking Dubai by the end of the day. This is significantly higher than the average annual rainfall of 94.7 millimetres (3.73 inches) at the airport.
The heavy rainfall in Dubai was attributed to a larger storm system moving across the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf of Oman. This same system also brought unusually wet weather to nearby Oman and southeastern Iran, causing flooding and claiming at least 18 lives in Oman.
Experts like Friederike Otto from the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London suggested that human-caused climate change likely played a role in the extreme rainfall. Additionally, cloud seeding operations in the UAE, where chemicals and tiny particles are implanted into the atmosphere to induce more rain from clouds, may have contributed to the heavy downpour.
The UAE government had issued warnings ahead of the heavy rains, urging people to stay at home and only leave in cases of extreme necessity. Remote working was also announced for all federal employees until Wednesday. The city is now working to recover from the aftermath of the unexpected deluge.