Dubai, known as a desert city, is currently facing floods. Famous shopping malls are filled with water. Cars are floating in the parking lots and the roads have turned into ponds. The situation is such that the airport has also been submerged in floods and the runway itself is not visible. The city’s driverless metro system has also come to a standstill. After all, why did it rain so much suddenly on the sandy land? Why has this flood occurred? Everyone has this question. In fact, some scientists have said that this is a mistake made in the use of science, due to which the entire city is suffering the consequences.
Scientists say that planes were flown for cloud seeding on Monday and Tuesday. Cloud seeding is a technique through which artificial rain is created. But this entire plan failed when the cloud itself burst in an attempt to make artificial rain. It is being said that so much rain happened in just a few hours, which used to happen in one and a half years. The effect of this was that the entire city was submerged and there was such a deluge that no one had even imagined about Dubai. Apart from Dubai, the situation is similar in another city Fujairah, where it has rained up to 5.7 inches.
Due to this rain, one person died in Ras Al-Khaimah. He was passing by in his car, but his car itself was washed away in the flood waters. The condition of the shops in Mall of the Emirates, one of the largest shopping centers in the world, is such that water started dripping from the roofs. Not only this, the roof of some shops collapsed. Those who are aware of the weather of Dubai say that there had never been so much rain in the history of the last 75 years. Sharjah City Center and Deira City Center have also been damaged due to this rain.
Movement of aircraft has been stopped at Dubai airport. Not only this, the vehicles parked in the parking lot are so submerged in water that it is not possible to take them out. Many houses and colonies are flooded. At present, Dubai authorities have sent tankers and water is being removed through pumps. Dubai has received 142 mm of rain in just 24 hours. Normally there is 94.7 million rainfall in a year. In this way, in just a few hours, almost one and a half year’s worth of rain has fallen.
There is generally very little rainfall in the UAE. The whole year is almost dry, except for a few winter months where there is light rain. Rainfall is less, due to which drainage arrangements have not been made much. Not only this, apart from UAE, countries like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar also receive less rainfall. This is the situation of most of the Arabian Gulf countries.
What is cloud seeding?
Cloud seeding is the process that is done to create artificial rainfall. The process involves dropping substances such as silver iodide or potassium iodide into clouds using an aircraft or helicopter. The UAE’s National Meteorological Center confirmed that seeding planes had flown seven times over two days to ensure maximum rainfall.