Just over a week ago, UAE and other countries in the Middle East experienced arguably one of the worst weather events ever to hit the region, causing record floods in Dubai. In Al-Ain, a city 60 miles off Dubai, 256mm of rain fell in just 24 hours, begging the question, what exactly caused the flooding of the Middle Eastern Metropolis?
The UAE for a number of years now have resorted to cloud seeding as a means to reducing their water shortages. Planes spray salts such as sodium into clouds by passing over them. These salts act as catalysts for precipitation, causing water molecules in the clouds to fuse and freeze. When released from the cloud, they melt and fall as raindrops. This has now become standard practice and is fairly successful in increasing precipitation, however the dark side to this process was made evident last week, although it should be noted that cloud seeding was not the sole contributor to these immense floods.
According to experts, the effects of climate change meant rainfall was up to 40% heavier, however, it was the natural weather phenomenon, El Niño, which ultimately brought the storm across to the region.
The impact of the torrential rainstorms was immense, airports were forced to close, roads and houses flooded and unfortunately lives were lost as result of the severe flooding.
To combat future storms, the UAE earlier this year set up a new transport unit to help fight and manage future floods
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