Dubai just got more than a year’s worth of rain in a single day

Out of the blue sky

Heavy thunderstorms sent the typically arid United Arab Emirates into chaos yesterday, with Dubai recording more than 5.59 inches (142 mm) of rain in just 24 hours since Monday night — the most in 75 years and equivalent to 1.5x the total seen in a typical year.

The “historic weather event” caused flash flooding and wreaked havoc across Dubai’s motorways, metro stations, and malls, with hundreds of flights at Dubai International Airport temporarily grounded.

Scientists have laid some of the blame on climate change, the usual suspect for unusual weather, as the driving force behind the unprecedented storm: per NASA, for every 1°C rise in average temperature, the atmosphere can hold ~7% more moisture, leading to heavier rainfall in shorter periods, over smaller areas.

However, several news outlets have also pointed towards cloud seeding — an operation that sees aircraft spray metal salt particles into clouds, inducing precipitation — as a culprit, which the UAE has been carrying out since the 1990s to improve water security and boost agriculture.

While there is debate about whether seeding could have an impact of this magnitude (the government is denying that the practice occurred in days preceding), the severity of flooding in the Gulf nation’s most populous city may be most strongly attributed to its lack of drainage and incapacity to deal with much rain at all — let alone a year’s worth in 24 hours.