An extremely rare phenomenon. In the desert city of Dubai, torrential rains submerged many sections of highways, making car traffic extremely difficult and even delaying plane departures and arrivals at the airport. A look back in pictures at this storm which paralyzed the most famous of the seven city states of the United Arab Emirates federation.
Roads submerged, air traffic at a standstill
Many motorists found themselves stranded on the roads after torrential rains fell in one day. Photo credits: Stringer / Anadolu / AFP
Huge queues formed on six-lane highways, some sections of which were submerged on Tuesday, as the Emirates recorded 254 millimeters of rain in one day, the equivalent of almost two years of rainfall in the desert country. At least one person died, a 70-year-old man whose car slid in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, police said. Travelers have been urged not to travel to Dubai Airport, the world’s busiest in terms of international traffic, “unless absolutely necessary”.
Long queues formed outside airport taxi ranks, while many passengers waited inside for news of their flights. Photo credits: AFP
“Flights continue to be delayed and diverted (…) We are working hard to restore operations as quickly as possible in very difficult conditions,” said a spokesperson for Dubai Airports. Dubai’s flagship airline Emirates suspended check-ins on Wednesday due to difficulties accessing the airport for staff and passengers, with roads blocked and some metro services suspended.
Schools closed due to record rains
⛈️ Exceptional rainstorm paralyzes Dubai and causes major flooding in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries #AFPVertical ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/eGAHEUUZ5L
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) April 17, 2024
Long queues formed outside airport taxi ranks, while many passengers waited inside for news of their flights. As of Tuesday, dozens of flights had been delayed, canceled or diverted. Schools also remained closed for the second day in a row.
Rainfall in the United Arab Emirates is the heaviest ever recorded in the country, according to authorities. Photo credits: Stringer / Anadolu / AFP
The storm hit the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain overnight from Monday to Tuesday, after hitting Oman, another Gulf country, where 18 people, including several children, were killed. Rainfall in the United Arab Emirates is the heaviest ever recorded in the country since records began in 1949, according to authorities.
For Friederike Otto, lecturer in climate sciences at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, “the deadly and destructive rains in Oman and Dubai” were probably accentuated by “man-made climate change”.