The storm first battered Oman on Sunday before hitting the UAE on Tuesday, knocking out electricity and disrupting flights. The deluge submerged residences, caused traffic havoc, and stranded individuals in their homes in Dubai.
Authorities reported that the UAE saw its greatest rainfall on record.
The state-run WAM news agency described it as "an historic weather event" that outperformed "anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949." That was before crude oil was discovered in the energy-rich Gulf region.
By the end of Tuesday, more than 142mm (5.59 inches) had soaked Dubai, which has a population of over three million. Nearly 127mm (5 inches) of rain occurred at Dubai International Airport, where an average annual rainfall of 76mm (3 inches) occurs.
According to authorities, Oman experienced roughly 230mm (9 inches) of rain between Sunday and Wednesday. Muscat's average annual rainfall is approximately 100mm (4 inches). Rain fell in Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, as well.
What sparked speculation that Dubai's rains were caused by cloud seeding?
According to reports, meteorologists at the UAE's National Centre for Meteorology (NCM) said Dubai flew six or seven cloud-seeding aircraft prior to the showers. Flight-tracking data reviewed by The Associated Press news agency also revealed that one aircraft associated with the UAE's cloud-seeding efforts flew across the country on Monday.
Cloud seeding, which began in the 1990s, has been part of the country's efforts to address water problems.
According to sources, the NCM stated on Wednesday that the seeding took place on Sunday and Monday, not Tuesday.
Omar Al Yazeedi, the NCM's deputy director general, told NBC that the organisation "did not conduct any seeding operations during this event".
"One of the basic principles of cloud seeding is that you have to target clouds in its early stage before it rains, if you have a severe thunderstorm situation then it is too late to conduct any seeding operation," he went on to say.
Rainfall is uncommon in the UAE and elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula, which is known for its arid desert climate. Summer air temperatures can rise beyond 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).
The UAE and Oman also lack drainage infrastructure to deal with heavy rains, and inundated highways are typical during downpours.
Was the torrential downpour caused by climate change?
Experts and officials have refuted claims that cloud seeding triggered the rains.
"If this happened with cloud seeding, they'd have water all the time. "You can't make rain out of thin air and get 6 inches [152.4mm] of water," said Ryan Maue, former head scientist at the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The rainfall was most likely caused by a typical weather system amplified by climate change, according to experts.
Global warming has resulted in "extraordinarily" warm water in the seas surrounding Dubai, as well as very warm air above, according to Mark Howden, head of The Australian National University's Institute for Climate, Energy, and Disaster Solutions.
"This increases both potential evaporation rates and the capacity of the atmosphere to hold that water, allowing bigger dumps of rainfall such as what we have just seen in Dubai."
According to accounts, the heavy downpours were caused by a slow-moving storm that meandered across the Arabian Peninsula and into the Gulf of Oman over many days. This storm brought plenty of tropical precipitation from near the equator and dumped it all over the region.
Days before the storm arrived, forecast models predicted it.
Huge tropical storms like this are "not uncommon in the Middle East," according to University of Reading meteorology professor Suzanne Grey. She referenced a recent study that examined over 100 such events over the southern Arabian Peninsula between 2000 and 2020, with the majority occurring in March and April, including a March 2016 storm that dumped 9.4 inches (almost 240mm) on Dubai in just a few hours.
According to climate experts, rising global temperatures driven by human-induced climate change are leading to more extreme weather events worldwide, including heavy rainfall.
"Thunderstorm rainfall, such as that witnessed in the UAE in recent days, increases significantly as temperatures rise. Dim Coumou, a professor of climate extremes at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, explained that this is because convection, the forceful updraft in thunderstorms, strengthens in warmer climates.
What is the definition of cloud seeding?
Cloud seeding is a form of weather modification technique that aims to increase rainfall or snowfall.
Cloud droplets do not develop by themselves. Moisture must attach to a surface before it can condense. Within a cloud, small particles in the air known as condensation nuclei serve as a foundation for moisture to attach.
Cloud seeding employs planes and ground-based guns to launch particles into clouds, creating additional nuclei and drawing moisture. When enough droplets join, they grow heavy and fall to the ground as rain or snow.
Small particles such as dust and dirt frequently play an important role in cloud formation and precipitation by providing surfaces for moisture to condense. Silver iodide might potentially serve the same purpose. Other substances, such as dry ice, could be employed for similar reasons.
The technology, developed in the 1940s, cannot produce water from a clear sky; particles must be blasted into a cloud that already contains moisture to cause it to rain, or to fall more than it would otherwise.
Cloud seeding is still controversial in the weather community, owing to the difficulty in proving its effectiveness, as well as the uncertainty about the potential harmful consequences.
Governments in drought-stricken areas such as the Western United States and the UAE have invested in technology such as seeding in the hopes of generating rainfall.
Cloud seeding is used in around 50 nations, including the United States, China, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, India, Malaysia, Russia, and Mexico.
Last year, the US Bureau of Reclamation spent $2.4 million on cloud seeding along the Colorado River, which is already overtapped. Utah just upped its planting budget threefold.
Seeding is a common method of irrigation in China. It was also utilised at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing to keep the sky pristine.
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