2024 Dubai Rainstorm

Submission 2,979

Green | Weather & Science Dubai Grinds to Standstill as Cloud Seeding Worsens Flooding Seeding planes used to take advantage of low pressure system ■Heavy rain disrupts transport systems and closes UAE schools in if WATCH: Flash flooding hits Dubai. Source: Bloomberg By Verity Ratcliffe and Kateryna Kadabashy April 16, 2024 at 4:33 PM UTC Updated on April 17, 2024 at 9:23 AM UTC Save Listen 2:31

Dubai: *cloud seeding for who knows how long* Also Dubai when they suddenly get a whole years worth of rain dumped on them in 24 hours:

We perform cloud seeding operations We get more rain We ground the city and clog it's entire drainage system We ground the city and clog it's entire drainage system

T 88 ← ང་ + N + ว + B EXPLAINED CLIMATE WHAT WAS BEHIND THE HEAVY RAINFALL THAT FLOODED DUBAI? ALIND CHAUHAN NEW DELHI, APRIL 17 THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE) recorded the heaviest rain ever after a se- vere thunderstorm hit the country on Mon- day night, killing at least one person, and causing damage to homes and businesses. According to the state-run WAM news agency, the rain was "a historic weather event" that surpassed "anything documented since the start of data col- lection in 1949"- that was before the UAE was established in 1971. Heavy rain is unusual in the UAE, which is an arid, Arabian peninsula coun- try. However, it occasionally rains in the region during the cooler winter months. What happened? The thunderstorm began on Monday night, and by Tuesday evening had dumped more than 142 millimetres (mm) of rain onto the desert city of Dubai. Usually, the city witnesses this much rain in a year and a half. An average year sees 94.7 mm of rain at Dubai International Airport. The heavy rain led to disruption of air travel as flights were either diverted or de- layed. Operations at the airport were tem- porarily suspended for 25 minutes on Tuesday afternoon. Across Dubai, homes were flooded and vehicles were aban- doned on roadways. Popular shopping centres like Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates were also flooded. The city of Al Ain, which is nearly 130 kilometres (km) away from Dubai, wit- nessed record rainfall of 254 mm. What led to the heavy rainfall? The primary reason for this heavy rain was a storm system, which was passing through the Arabian peninsula and mov- A person walks in flood water in Dubai on Wednesday. Reuters ing across the Gulf of Oman. According to a report by the Associated Press, the rain could have been exacer- bated by cloud seeding, a process of spraying salt mixtures in clouds that would result in condensation of the cloud and eventually cause rainfall. The UAE's National Center for Meteorology had flown six or seven cloud-seeding flights before the rain, the AP report said. Some experts suggested that climate change could also be behind the heavy rain. The UAE's average surface temper- ature has increased by 0.4 degree Celsius between 2003 and 2022. Higher temperatures cause evapora- tion of water not only from land but also oceans and other water bodies, meaning a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. For every 1 degree Celsius rise in average temperature, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture. This leads to an increase in precipitation intensity, which ultimately can cause severe flooding. However, it is extremely difficult to at- tribute any particular extreme weather event to climate change. Multiple factors, like patterns of natural climate variability, such as the El Niño, contribute to such events. Cloud seeding is a weather modification technique that improves a cloud's ability to produce rain or snow by introducing tiny ice nuclei into certain types of subfreezing clouds. The primary goal of it is to enhance precipitation in areas facing water shortages, droughts, or where water resources are critical for agriculture, hydroelectric power generation, or other purposes. Seeding Agents includes 1) Silver lodide used in cold clouds 2) Calcium Chloride used in warmer clouds 3) Other chemicals: Potassium iodide, dry ice, propane, calcium carbide, ammonium nitrate, sodium chloride, and urea compounds. 1. An aircraft injects silver iodide or other substances into the atmosphere Silver iodide 2. The chemicals mimic the particals that serve as surfaces for condensation that creates water droplets Once the condensation creates water droplets that are large enough, the rain will fall El Nino is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. It is the "warm phase" of a larger phenomenon called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). TWEETSFORUPSC 102

Don't wait for me, I'll probably arrive a bit later at the party today. #TOKEN2049 #Dubai THE ME

Sheridan @sherrybucks Follow Influencers in Dubai right now. X Will the lifeboats be seated according to followers? 4:48 AM Apr 17, 2024

View All 9 Images

Overview

The 2024 Dubai Rainstorm, also known as the 2024 UAE Flood or the 2024 Dubai Flood, refers to the heaviest recorded rainfall ever to hit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) desert nation, flooding portions of major highways and roads, delaying thousands of flights and causing chaos in Dubai. After the disaster occurred in mid-April 2024, many netizens began sharing memes and reactions about the unprecedented rainstorm on social media platforms like Twitter / X, TikTok and Reddit, among others. One of the most viral pieces of content about the flooding shows a cat being rescued while clinging to a submerged vehicle. Rumors have also spread on the internet that the rainstorm was caused by the UAE's "Cloud Seeding," which is a weather modification technique whereby small planes fly through clouds burning salt flares that can, theoretically, increase precipitation to help make it rain.

Background

On April 16th, 2024, several netizens and media outlets started to report that Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), was "submerged in floods as UAE gets over a year’s worth of rain in hours," as AlJazeera^[1] stated. X^[2] user @aviationbrk shared footage that day of the Dubai Airport flooded while airplanes were trying to take off (shown below), which amassed over 1 million views and 6,600 likes in two days.

Dubai Airport enjoying a light shower 👀✈️ pic.twitter.com/4g9pEf3RKg

— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) April 16, 2024

Developments

UAE Cloud Seeding Rumors

Rumors alleging the rainstorm was caused by the Government's Cloud Seeding project were popularized as Dubai flood videos went viral on social media. For instance, on April 16th, 2024, X^[3] user @BGatesIsaPyscho posted a video from CNBC explaining how the UAE Cloud Seeding system works, which amassed more than 3 million views and 20,000 likes in two days.

🇦🇪 UAE Cloud Seeding/Geo-Engineering Control RoomYou’ve seen the flood in Dubai’s airport & other weird Climate Phenomena in the Middle East.This is your human man made climate change right here.If you don’t think the West is conducting similar activities you’re very naive. pic.twitter.com/RPYCzz03hh

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) April 16, 2024

According to SKY News,^[4] the UAE has denied cloud seeding as the cause of the record rainfall. The video, uploaded on YouTube^[4] on April 18th, 2024, amassed more than 13,000 views and 135 likes in a few hours (shown below).

Dubai Cat Rescue

On April 17th, 2024, a video of a cat being rescued while clinging to a car door amid Dubai's flooding has gone viral on the internet. The Indepedent^[5] shared the video on YouTube (shown below), amassing roughly 9,000 views and 242 likes in a day.

Online Reactions

People took to social media to post memes and jokes about Dubai's flooding hours after the event. For instance, on April 16th, 2024, X^[6] user @ordinarytings replied to a video showing water falling from inside a hotel in Dubai, saying "Dubai infrastructure being totally unprepared for moderate rain, worsened by the government’s cloud-seeding experiments, coinciding with a massive crypto convention so all the coin-fluencers are there to document it." The post (shown below) amassed 3 million views and 75,000 likes in two days.

Dubai infrastructure being totally unprepared for moderate rain, worsened by the government’s cloud-seeding experiments, coinciding with a massive crypto convention so all the coin-fluencers are there to document it. Literally: a perfect storm. https://t.co/DAy7EW3PFV

— Josh Otten (@ordinarytings) April 16, 2024

On April 17th, X^[7] user @_melayela_ posted an edited video of X-Men '97 Storm character causing a tornado and storm in Dubai (shown below), which received more than 93,000 views and 3,700 likes in a day.

#XSpoilers #XMen97 https://t.co/VgmyDgwwrb pic.twitter.com/Zphxh9SHKi

— Mela Yela (@_melayela_) April 17, 2024

Redditors also shared videos about the Dubai flood, like Redditor @saksit13429^[8] post on April 16th, 2024, showing a flooded highway filled with cars (shown below), which amassed more than 10,000 upvotes and 1,000 comments in two days