Heavy rain has been battering Gulf states of Dubai uae, causing flash floods that have killed 20 people and disrupted flights at the world’s second-busiest airport.
Dubai International Airport says it is facing “very challenging conditions”. It advised passengers not to turn up as runways were inundated with water.
Further north, a man died when his car was caught in flash floods.
In Oman, rescuers found the body of a girl in Saham, bringing the death toll in the country to 19 since Sunday.
More than 270 flights to and from Dubai International Airport were canceled on Wednesday, according to Flight Aware.
According to the data, there were an additional 370 delayed flights.
The airport, which serves as a major hub for connecting flights to all continents, warned that “recovery will take time.” Emirates, a major international airline headquartered in Dubai, has suspended check-in for passengers departing from Dubai until Thursday.
Authorities warned that more thunderstorms, heavy rain and strong winds were expected, with many low-lying areas still under water.
Oman’s northern neighbor, the United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday experienced its heaviest rainfall since records began 75 years ago.
The National Meteorological Center announced that 254.8 mm (9.7 inches) of rain fell in Hatom Al Shakra in the emirate of Al Ain within 24 hours.
The country’s average annual rainfall is between 140 and 200 mm, but Dubai typically receives only 97 mm. The monthly average for April is only about 8mm.
Footage from central Dubai shows dozens of submerged vehicles on a flooded section of Sheikh Zayed Road, as well as long traffic jams elsewhere on the 12-lane highway. The situation was visible.
Stranded at Dubai mall
British tourist Caroline Seubert, 29, from Leyland in Lancashire, told the UAE Breaking News that she and her husband had headed to Dubai Mall on Tuesday morning because they had tickets for its aquarium and had not been warned by their hotel that it could be unsafe.
Ms Seubert said: “The mall was flooded, ceilings were collapsing, the place shut at 7.30pm.
“We were told to leave, but the metro was shut and the taxis were not running or picking up in the area. We were stranded, had to sleep in the mall lobby overnight.”
They managed to catch a taxi in the morning, but it could not reach their hotel and dropped them off at another mall on the way, she said.
“We still can’t get taxis to agree to take us to our hotel 15 minutes down the road, and our hotel refused to put their usual mall shuttle bus on in order to help people,” she said.
Another British resident of Dubai, Ross Moore, told the uae breaking news that the storm was “an incredible sight”.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in the UAE. I’ve been coming here since 2017,” the 35-year-old said. “The thunder and lightning was amazing. I’ll never forget the noise.”
His house was on a hill, so there was some water intrusion, but he said he dealt with it by putting sandbags and towels at the front door. Told.
“Yesterday afternoon I drove out of the area with my son and everything was flooded, including the roads. A truck came last night and collected all the water.”
Dubai No deaths were reported in Ras Al Khaimah, but an elderly man died after his car was washed away by flash floods in Ras Al Khaimah.
Although the rain eased on Tuesday night, Dubai International Airport warned of further disruption and announced congestion.
A severe storm that began Tuesday morning and lasted most of the day forced the airport to close for 25 minutes, diverting several incoming aircraft and canceling numerous flights.
Videos posted on social media showed the plane passing through several centimeters of water that completely covered the airport’s apron and taxiway.
“We are currently experiencing significant disruption due to the weather and are continuously working with our emergency response teams and service partners to restore normal operations as quickly as possible,” it said on X, formerly Twitter.
Emirates, one of the UAE’s two flag carriers and the world’s largest international airline, meanwhile told customers that check-in had been suspended at the airport for all flights until Thursday morning.
The chief executive of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffiths, told local radio station Dubai Eye: “In living memory, I don’t think anyone has ever seen conditions like it.”
Software engineer Kanish Kumar Deb Barman, who is stuck at the airport on his way home to India, told Reuters: “There are hundreds and thousands of other passengers just like me in this airport who have been waiting for 10 hours, 16 hours, some even for 24 to 30 hours.”
The UAE’s National Emergency and Emergency Management Agency issued a warning ahead of the storm, urging people to stay at home. The government asked employees to work from home and advised private schools to implement distance learning.
More than 1,400 people have been evacuated to emergency shelters in Oman. Schools and government offices were closed as a precautionary measure.
Ten school children aged between 10 and 15 and one adult were killed on Sunday when a bus tried to pass through a wadi in al-Mudaibi district, Sharqiya governorate, about 115 kilometers (70 miles) to the south. The capital Muscat was submerged in floods.
Three other children and the driver were rescued. Two of them were reportedly airlifted to safety after being swept 600 meters (1,970 feet) from the bus.
The Sultanate’s Council of Ministers said it was “saddened” by the death and expressed its condolences to the victims’ families.
It hardly rains in Oman. Average annual precipitation in the north is 150-300 mm, most of which falls during pre- and post-monsoon storms.
In the hours after the floods, some social media users falsely claimed that the extreme weather was solely due to recent cloud seeding activities in the country. For more than a decade, the United Arab Emirates has been practicing cloud seeding, where aircraft spray clouds with particles to create rain.
But experts said the impact on the storm was minor at best and the focus on cloud formation was “misleading”.
“Although the UAE operates a cloud-seeding program to increase rainfall in this arid region of the world, there is no technology that can induce or even significantly change this type of rainfall phenomenon. ” said Professor Maarten Ambaum of the University of Reading. .
UAE Breaking News meteorologist Matt Taylor also pointed out that the storm had already been predicted.
“It was already predicted that this would be a severe weather event. Prior to this event, computer models (which did not take into account the effects of potential cloud formation) predicted that within approximately 24 hours, a year’s worth of
“The impact was much more widespread than we expected from the cloud formation alone. Severe flooding hit large areas from Bahrain to Oman.”
Heavy rains also affected Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, with videos showing cars submerged in water.
Many factors contribute to flooding, but the warming of the atmosphere due to climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme rainfall.
The world has already warmed by about 1.1°C since the beginning of the industrial era. Significant reductions in emissions are being made around the world, and temperatures will continue to rise unless governments act.