Dubai reels from flood pandemonium as record rains hit the UAE.
Passengers were advised to avoid the airport due to the heavy rainfall that has caused flooding to block Dubai’s roadways. The opulent financial center is reeling from record-breaking rains.
According to the National Centre of Meteorology, Al Ain received 254mm (10 inches) of rain in less than 24 hours on Tuesday, setting a new record in the UAE. That was the highest number since records began in 1949, before the nation was created in 1971.
Even though the intense rains had stopped by late Tuesday, there were still disturbances on Wednesday as Emirates Airlines the main airline in Dubai had stopped accepting passenger check-ins until midnight.
The heavy rains caused major delays at Dubai International Airport, one of the busiest in the world causing planes to be delayed or diverted.
Flights are still being rescheduled and delayed. A spokeswoman for the airport stated, “We are working very hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions.” Due to access routes being flooded and some metro services being halted, it was difficult for employees and travelers to enter and exit the airport.
Once the storms swept through Oman, where they killed eighteen people, including numerous children, they made landfall in the UAE and Bahrain overnight on Monday and Tuesday. Climatologist Friederike Otto who specializes in studying the effect of climate change in extreme weather events and said it was “highly likely” that global warming exacerbated the storms.
