In the last 24 hours, record rainfall has hit Dubai, raising questions about the cause of the phenomenon, with many pointing to cloud seeding as the “culprit”. How unusual was the rainfall and what were the reasons behind the extreme phenomenon?
Dubai is located on the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and usually has a very dry climate. However, it does occasionally experience extreme rainfall.
A low barometric pressure, which attracted warm, moist air and prevented other weather systems from passing through, appears to have been the cause of the latest phenomenon, according to the BBC.
“This part of the world is characterized by long periods without rain followed by irregular, heavy rainfall, but even so, this was a very rare rainfall event,” explains Professor Maarten Ambaum, a meteorologist at the University of Reading, who has study rainfall patterns in the Gulf region
What is cloud seeding and did it play a role in causing the phenomenon?
Cloud seeding involves “stimulating” existing clouds to help produce more rain.
This can be done by using aircraft that drop small particles (such as silver iodide) into the clouds. The water vapor can then turn into rain.
This technique has existed for decades in the UAE as well they have used it in recent years to deal with the lack of water.
In the hours following the floods, some social media users were quick to mistakenly attribute the extreme weather solely to recent cloud seeding operations in the country.
Earlier Bloomberg reports indicated that cloud seeding planes were deployed on Sunday and Monday, but not on Tuesday, when the flooding occurred.
While the BBC was unable to independently verify when the cloud seeding took place, the experts say it would have little effect on the storm at best, and that focusing on cloud seeding is “misleading.”
“Even if cloud seeding encouraged the clouds around Dubai to drop water, the atmosphere would likely transport more water to form clouds in the first place, due to climate change,” says Dr Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London.
Cloud seeding generally develops when wind, moisture, and dust conditions are insufficient to lead to rain. Last week, forecasters warned of a high risk of flooding across the Gulf.
“When such intense and large-scale systems are predicted, cloud seeding – which is an expensive process – does not take place because there is no need to seed such strong regional-scale systems,” says Professor Diana Francis, head of the Department of Environmental and Geophysical Sciences at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi.
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