- Title: EXPLAINER: What caused the storm that brought Dubai to a standstill?
- Date: 17th April 2024
- Summary: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (APRIL 17, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FLOODED ROADS, CARS DRIVING VARIOUS OF FLOODED AREAS / CARS SUBMERGED IN WATER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SENIOR FORECASTER FOR UAE'S NATIONAL CENTER OF METEOROLOGY, ESRAA ALNAQBI, SAYING: "This (storm) is considered historic, because for the first time in approximately 57 years, a quantity of 254.8 millimeters of
- Embargoed: 1st May 2024 18:30
- Keywords: Dubai Oman UAE flood rain rainfall weather
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: UAE
- Topics: Climate Change,Environment,General News,Middle East,Government / Politics,Climate Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001592517042024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A storm hit the United Arab Emirates and Oman this week bringing record rainfall that flooded highways, inundated houses, grid-locked traffic and trapped people in their homes.
Questions were raised about whether cloud seeding could have caused the heavy rains. Cloud seeding is a process in which chemicals are implanted into clouds to increase rainfall in an environment where water scarcity is a concern. The UAE, located in one of the hottest and driest regions on earth, has been leading the effort to seed clouds and increase precipitation. But the UAE's meteorology agency told Reuters there were no such operations before the storm.
The huge rainfall was instead likely due to a normal weather system that was exacerbated by climate change, experts say. A low pressure system in the upper atmosphere, coupled with low pressure at the surface had acted like a pressure 'squeeze' on the air, according to Esraa Alnaqbi, a senior forecaster at the UAE government's National Centre of Meteorology. That squeeze, intensified by the contrast between warmer temperatures at ground level and colder temperatures higher up, created the conditions for the powerful thunderstorm, she said.
The "abnormal phenomenon" was not unexpected in April as when the season changes the pressure changes rapidly, she said, adding that climate change also likely contributed to the storm.
Climate scientists say that rising global temperatures, caused by human-led climate change, is leading to more extreme weather events around the world, including intense rainfall.
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