DUBAI: This week, a storm brought record-breaking rainfall to the United Arab Emirates and Oman, flooding residences, causing gridlock on the highways and trapping people inside their homes.
There were reports of at least 20 fatalities from the floods in Oman, and one death from flooding in the United Arab Emirates, which caused government buildings and educational institutions to close for several days.
Before it pummeled the UAE on Tuesday, the storm had first struck Oman on Sunday. It caused power outages and severely disrupted travel, turning runways into rivers.
Al Ain, a city that borders Oman, in the United Arab Emirates, saw a record 254 millimeters (10 inches) of rainfall. It was the most 24-hour total since records began in 1949.
Experts claim that the seas surrounding Dubai are becoming “extraordinarily” warm due to global warming.
Cloud seeding?
In the UAE and other parts of the Arabian Peninsula, which is generally recognized for its arid desert climate, rainfall is uncommon. Temperatures in the summer might rise above 50 degrees Celsius.
However, the UAE and Oman do not have adequate drainage systems to handle severe rains, and during a downpour, roadways frequently become drowned.
Following Tuesday’s occurrences, speculation arose as to whether the massive rains were caused by cloud seeding, a procedure that the UAE regularly uses.
Chemicals are inserted into clouds through a procedure called “cloud seeding” in order to enhance precipitation in areas where water scarcity is a problem.
The UAE has been spearheading efforts to seed clouds and boost precipitation because of its location in one of the warmest and driest parts of the planet.
However, the UAE meteorological agency informed Reuters that prior to the storm, no such procedures had taken place.
Changes in climate
Experts suggest that the massive downpour was most likely caused by a typical weather pattern that was made worse by climate change.
According to Esraa Alnaqbi, a senior forecaster at the National Centre of Meteorology of the UAE government, a low pressure system in the high atmosphere combined with low pressure at the surface had created a “squeeze” on the air pressure.
The strong thunderstorm was brought about by this squeezing, which was exacerbated by the difference in temperature between the ground and higher elevations.
She added that the storm was probably caused by climate change and that the “abnormal phenomenon” in April was not surprising because pressure changes quickly with the seasons.
According to climate experts, increased global temperatures brought on by human-caused climate change are causing more extreme weather events, such as heavy rainstorms, to occur globally.
Rainfall from thunderstorms, such as the ones that have recently occurred in the United Arab Emirates, increases significantly with warming. This is due to the fact that convection, the powerful updraft that occurs in thunderstorms, intensifies in a warmer climate, according to Dim Coumou, a climate extremes professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
“Can’t make clouds appear out of thin air”
Because a warmer atmosphere can contain more moisture, Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London, claimed that rainfall is becoming more frequent and intense globally as a result of climate change. She claimed that discussing cloud seeding as the reason for the intense downpour was inaccurate.
“Cloud seeding is unable to produce clouds on its own. It causes water that is already in the sky to condense more quickly and fall where it is expected to. You therefore need moisture initially. There wouldn’t be any clouds without it, she stated.
“Extraordinarily” warm water and extremely warm air above are the results of global warming, according to Mark Howden, Director of the Australian National University’s Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions, in the seas surrounding Dubai.
This leads to greater potential evaporation rates and a rise in the atmosphere’s capacity to hold water, which permits heavier rainstorm events like the one that recently occurred in Dubai. According to Edinburgh University meteorologist Gabi Hegerl, the consequences of climate change are expected to worsen excessive rainfall in several regions, including the UAE and Oman.
There is more moisture in the air when the weather is ideal for heavy rain, thus it pours more heavily. According to her, the reason for the increased moisture is the warmer air brought on by climate change caused by humans.
