The storms appeared to inundate the tarmac, forcing a temporary diversion of flights into Dubai International Airport.

On Wednesday, the Arabian Peninsula was struck by an unusual amount of rain and flooding, which caused aircraft to be grounded and schools to be closed. The United Arab Emirates, a desert nation, saw 10 inches of rainfall a single day.

According to Oman’s National Committee for Emergency Management, at least 18 individuals have passed away as a result of the extreme weather in recent days.

This usually desert region of the world is not used to heavy rain and flash flooding, thus the storms flooded roads and produced hazardous circumstances all throughout the region.

Early on Wednesday, the airport in Dubai offered travelers advice not to go there unless it was “absolutely necessary.”

Until Wednesday at midnight (3 p.m. ET), all passenger check-in at Dubai will be suspended, according to a post made by major airline Emirates on X.

When the United Arab Emirates was still a British protectorate in 1949, before oil was discovered, the National Center of Meteorology in Abu Dhabi reported that the amount of rain in the country had exceeded all previous records.

In less than twenty-four hours, ten inches of train were delivered to the Khatm Al Shakla neighborhood outside of Al Ain, close to the Oman border.

The center for meteorology described it as “an exceptional event in the UAE’s climate history since the start of recording climate data, and it is expected that the coming hours will witness the recording of larger amounts of rainfall.”

The state-owned news station Al Arabiya in Saudi Arabia was able to capture footage showing the Dubai tarmac flooded, with support trucks almost completely submerged and airplanes just able to skim the floodwaters.

At midnight on Tuesday, the city of Dubai had received 5.59 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. This is equivalent to 3.73 inches of rain annually on average at Dubai Airport, a major hub for travel to and from the Middle East.

The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority of the United Arab Emirates advised residents to stay indoors, stating on X that automobiles should be placed in “safe and elevated locations,” away from regions that are vulnerable to flooding and where water can collect.

Prior to the storm, government workers were told to work remotely, and private schools around the United Arab Emirates were closed.

Although the United Arab Emirates is renowned for its dry weather and arid climate, it occasionally experiences winter precipitation.

Ten students and an adult driver in a car that was swamped by floodwaters were murdered in neighboring Oman in recent days due to storms and severe rain, the AP said.

Wet weather this week was also abnormally widespread in other parts of the Middle East, such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Research has indicated that a warmer atmosphere brought on by climate change might contain more moisture, which can in turn feed more severe storms and intense rain, however it is yet too early to tell if this is the cause of the recent storms.

 

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