Heavy thunderstorms lashed the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday, April 16, dumping the heaviest rain ever recorded in the country in a span of hours.
The state-run WAM news agency called the rain “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.”
Footage shared across social media appears to show scenes from the UAE. One video purportedly taken from Dubai International Airport shows planes traveling amid the deep floodwaters, with the water nearly reaching one plane’s wings.
The footage was shocking, particularly in a desert region that typically experiences little rainfall, which made some people question if it was real.
“Is this real in Dubai. I thought it doesn’t rain there that much,” one X post says. Another post says, “Wow, I thought some of these Dubai videos were fake.”
“Dubai airport looks like an apocalyptic movie. Videos of the flooding are insane,” reads one post on X. That X poster also suggested “cloud seeding,” which is when substances are dropped in clouds to try to increase precipitation, could have caused the severe storms.
VERIFY reader Zach emailed us and asked about Dubai’s flooding.
THE QUESTION
Is the viral video of flooding at Dubai International Airport real?
THE SOURCES
- Meteorological data collected at Dubai International Airport
- Dubai International Airport posts on X
- United Arab Emirates government media office
- The UAE’s National Center for Meteorology
- Additional video posted to social media from Dubai International Airport
- Robert M. Rauber, director emeritus at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
- Professor Maarten Ambaum, a meteorologist at the University of Reading, cited in a blog post about cloud seeding and Dubai storms
THE ANSWER
Yes, the viral video of flooding at Dubai International Airport is real. However, the rain was not caused by cloud seeding.
WHAT WE FOUND
The viral video of flooding at Dubai International Airport is real and shows planes traversing through floodwaters amid the heavy storms that hit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on April 16. Additional footage taken from the airport corroborates the viral video, and the airport posted weather warnings to travelers on social media.
The rain in Dubai began late Monday, April 15. The storms intensified around 9 a.m. local time Tuesday and continued throughout the day, dumping rain and hail.
By the end of Tuesday, more than 5.59 inches of rainfall soaked Dubai over 24 hours. Social media posts from Dubai International Airport warned people to not go to the airport “unless absolutely necessary.”
On X, the account for UAE’s government office, reported in Arabic and translated to English with Google Translate, said that it was the most amount of rain ever recorded in the region in the past 75 years. The UAE’s National Center for Meteorology (NCM) also posted several updates on social media that the area was experiencing heavy rainfall.
Another video taken at the Dubai airport and posted to social media on the same day also confirms the flooding.
Claims cloud seeding caused Dubai flooding are false
After the flooding, comments attributed to a meteorologist suggested cloud seeding caused the record rainfall. But a spokesperson for the NCM told The National News, UAE’s state media, and CNBC that the NCM “didn't conduct any seeding operations during this event.”
Cloud seeding is a process of weather modification that involves dispersing non-toxic silver iodide aerosol or dry pellets into a cloud in an attempt to draw more rain or snow than what would occur naturally, according to Robert M. Rauber, director emeritus at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences.
The UAE does have an operational cloud seeding program used to enhance rainfall in the region, according to a blog post on the topic from experts at the United Kingdom’s University of Reading. The NCM told The National News they don’t cloud seed during severe weather.
“One of the basic principles of cloud seeding is that you have to target clouds in its early stage before it rains. If you have a severe thunderstorm situation then it is too late to conduct any seeding operation,” the NCM statement to The National News said. “We take the safety of our people, pilots and aircraft very seriously. NCM doesn't conduct cloud seeding operations during extreme weather events.”
Rauber told VERIFY cloud seeding didn’t cause the flooding. Instead, it was caused by a storm system that passed over Dubai is an example of what meteorologists call a “mesoscale convective system (MCS),” which simply put is a large group of thunderstorms. This type of weather system is responsible for flooding across many parts of the world, including in desert regions.
Professor Maarten Ambaum, a meteorologist at the University of Reading who has studied rainfall patterns in the Gulf region, was cited in the university’s blog post about false claims that Dubai’s flooding was connected to cloud seeding, saying “there is no technology in existence that can create or even severely modify this kind of rainfall event.”
Ambuam said that the storms dumping rain on the UAE were not a target for cloud seeding, adding that “in this particular case, there would have been no benefit to seed these clouds as they were predicted to produce substantial rain anyway.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The VERIFY team works to separate fact from fiction so that you can understand what is true and false. Please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter, text alerts and our YouTube channel. You can also follow us on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Learn More »
