Record rainfall in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) flooded streets in the desert nation and closed Dubai International Airport on Wednesday. The state-run WAM news agency called the rain that began Tuesday, “a historic weather event.” It reported the rainfall as higher than “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.” Rain also fell in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. However, the rains were more severe across the UAE. One possible cause of the record weather may have been “cloud seeding.” Cloud seeding is done to increase rainfall. Small planes burn special salt material as they fly through clouds. Several news reports said members of the National Center for Meteorology reported they flew six or seven cloud-seeding flights before the rains. An Associated Press examination of flight data showed one aircraft involved in cloud-seeding efforts flew around the country Monday. The center did not answer questions Wednesday from the AP. The UAE heavily depends on desalination factories to provide the country with water. The process requires a lot of energy. The UAE seeds clouds partly to increase its limited groundwater. Scientists say climate change in general is responsible for more intense weather, including extreme storms, droughts, floods and wildfires around the world.
