On Tuesday (17/4/2024) storms that had dumped over a year and a half's worth of rain in a few hours flooded roads and the international airport located in the city of Dubai, submerging the United Arab Emirates (UAE) underwater.

This phenomenon caused misleading speculations regarding cloud seeding, leading to uncertainties about its effectiveness for weather modification efforts

Here is what we know about the extreme weather and heavy rainfall in the UAE.

Dubai is a coastal city in the United Arab Emirates that is typically very dry. Even though Dubai receives less than 100 mm of rain on average annually, extremely heavy rain can fall at any time.

The main cause is low-pressure weather systems that draw in warm, moist air and prevent other weather systems from entering.

By Tuesday night, over 142mm of rain fell on Dubai, home to over three million people. At Dubai International Airport, where 76mm of rain falls annually on average, close to 127mm of rain fell.

How big does climate change play a role in this phenomenon?

It is still unclear how big of a part climate change plays in this occurrence. The factors of nature and humankind must be analyzed scientifically, which can take months to complete. However, this record-breaking rainfall is consistent with ongoing climate change.

"This record-breaking rainfall intensity is related to global warming. More moisture is fueling storms and amplifying the heavy rains, along with flooding that accompanies them," said Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading.

New research shows that the annual rainfall in major parts of the UAE has risen to 30 percent in the last century, along with global warming.

Did Cloud Seeding cause the flood?

Cloud seeding is a type of weather modification technique that aims to increase the amount of rain or snow. This method has been around for decades, and the UAE has used it in the past few years to address water shortages.

Hours after the flood struck, some social media users wrongly addressed that the extreme weather was caused by the cloud seeding that was done a few days before the phenomenon occurred.

Experts and officials have debunked the speculations that cloud seeding caused the rainfall.

“Even if cloud seeding prompts clouds around Dubai to precipitate water, it is most likely that the atmosphere has already brought more water to form clouds due to climate change,” said Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London.

Cloud seeding is usually done when the wind conditions, humidity, and dust are not sufficient to produce rain. Since last week, weather forecasts have warned of a high risk of storms and flooding across the Gulf.

Large tropical storms like this "are not rare events for the Middle East," according to Suzanne Gray, a meteorology professor at the University of Reading. She referenced a recent study that examined about 100 of these occurrences throughout the southern Arabian Peninsula, including a storm in March 2016 that dumped about 240 mm on Dubai in a few hours