DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Nationwide Heart of Meteorology, a authorities job pressure chargeable for cloud seeding missions within the United Arab Emirates, stated it had not carried out the climate modification method within the run-up to the heavy storms that induced flooding in locations like Dubai.
The group advised CNBC that it didn’t dispatch pilots for seeding operations earlier than or throughout the storm that struck the UAE on Tuesday.
Omar AlYazeedi, deputy director basic of the NCM, stated the company “didn’t conduct any seeding operations throughout this occasion.”
He added: “One of many primary rules of cloud seeding is that you need to goal clouds in its early stage earlier than it rains, when you have a extreme thunderstorm scenario then it’s too late to conduct any seeding operation.”
On Tuesday, the nation skilled a particularly heavy downpour, with greater than 250 millimeters (10 inches) of rainfall within the Emirate of Al Ain, based on NCM figures, and greater than 100 mm in locations like Dubai. The annual rainfall within the UAE averages between 140 to 200 mm.
The NCM’s assertion adopted an earlier Bloomberg report, during which Ahmed Habib, a meteorologist, had stated that the Tuesday rains had stemmed partly from cloud seeding. Habib later advised CNBC that six pilots had flown missions as a part of common protocol however had not seeded any clouds. CNBC was not in a position to independently confirm the reviews.
Cloud seeding, a course of used to reinforce rainfall, has been an integral a part of the UAE’s mission to unravel water shortages. Seeding missions have been launched within the Nineties, and greater than 1,000 hours of cloud seeding at the moment are carried out yearly.
The NCM stated it had tracked the incoming heavy rain however didn’t goal any clouds throughout that interval, attributing the storm to pure rainfall.
“We take the security of our folks, pilots, and aircrafts very significantly,” AlYazeedi stated. “The NCM doesn’t conduct cloud seeding operations throughout excessive climate occasions.”
The Gulf state has skilled an increase in rainfall in the previous few years, and precipitation is anticipated to extend by up 30% by the yr 2080, based on a January research revealed within the journal Nature.
Historically characterised by its desert local weather and scarce rainfall, the UAE has skilled shifts in climate patterns as a consequence of local weather change.
The UAE authorities’s Nationwide Emergency Disaster and Catastrophe Administration Authority issued warnings on X forward of the acute climate situations and urged residents to remain residence and cling to security tips.
The UAE’s infrastructure and buildings are designed for the climate patterns typical to the area, so drainage programs struggled to maintain up with the unprecedented downpours, leading to flooding alongside many roads and on the Dubai airport.