Dubai:
The record-breaking rainfall in Dubaithis week has left the world puzzled. Situated within the Arabian Desert, one of the fastest-growing cities known for its soaring skyscrapers and opulent infrastructure has been brought to its knees by torrential rains that have triggered disastrous floods.
According to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) National Meteorology Centre, the city recorded a year and a half’s rain in just a few hours. The city of Al Ain received 254 mm in less than 24 hours on Tuesday — the highest ever since the records began.
The meteorologists say the rainfall was triggered by a high-intensity storm passing over the region – these systems originate in the Mediterranean Sea and move eastwards. However, this time, it unusually extended far to the south.
INTENSE STORM FUELLED BY GLOBAL WARMING?
“There was a mid-latitude westerly trough from the Mediterranean Sea which became so strong, that it also extended southwards towards the UAE. Normally, it affects the upper reaches of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Himachal, and Uttarakhand even closer to Tibet, but it went unusually far to the south. So the rainfall in Dubai was preceded by flooding in Oman and adjoining Saudi Arabia,” said Dr KJ Ramesh, former chief of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The storm was further fuelled by additional moisture from the Arabian Sea concurrently giving extreme rainfall over Bahrain and Qatar.
But it is clearly not a one-off incident. Extreme weather events, especially short bursts of torrential rain, have intensified globally leading to disastrous floods.
Massive amounts of greenhouse emissions pumped into the atmosphere by human-led activities have raised global temperatures, making the world over 1.1℃ warmer already.
“Whatever may be the trigger, it is certain that global warming has intensified heavy rainfall events. Though the overall number of rainy days is less, the amount of rainfall on those days has increased significantly. This is because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, and sustain strong, deep clouds for a long duration which leads to a sudden downpour,” added the senior atmospheric scientist.
Experts have also addressed the widespread debate over whether the existing rainfall event was inadvertently exacerbated by artificial cloud seeding. This is a scientific method of modifying the weather by dispersing large salt particles into convective clouds through an aircraft to increase the overall precipitation. The UAE’s National Centre of Meteorology was one of the first in the Arabian Gulf region to use cloud seeding and has been using it for more than a decade to incrementally increase rainfall. This is done using a private airplane supplied by special salt flares manufactured to fit with the nature of the physical and chemical properties of the clouds that form in the UAE.
