.-') _ .-') _
( OO ) ) ( OO ) )
.-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,'
' .--./ | \ | |\ | \ | |\
| |('-. | \| | )| \| | )
/_) |OO )| . |/ | . |/
|| |`-'| | |\ | | |\ |
(_' '--'\ | | \ | | | \ |
`-----' `--' `--' `--' `--'
lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
A year’s worth of rain plunges normally dry Dubai underwater
By Mary Gilbert and Brandon Miller, CNN Meteorologists
Updated:
3:43 AM EDT, Wed April 17, 2024
Source: CNN
A year’s worth of rain unleashed immense in Dubai Tuesday as roads
turned into rivers and rushing water inundated homes and businesses.
Shocking video showed the tarmac of Dubai International Airport –
recently crowned the – underwater as . Large jets looked more like
boats moving through the flooded airport as water sprayed in their wake
and waves rippled through the deep water.
Disruption to airport operations continued into Wednesday, with by
flooding and multiple airlines including flag carrier reporting flight
delays. Budget airline Flydubai all flights until 10 a.m. local time
Wednesday.
Emirates is suspending check-in for passengers departing Dubai from
8:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday until midnight on Thursday due to
“operational challengers caused by bad weather and road
conditions.”
Dubai International Airport also advised people to “NOT to come to
the airport, unless absolutely necessary,” and said “flights
continue to be delayed and diverted.”
The airline said passengers who were already in transit will continue
to be processed but warned that customers can expect delays to
departures and arrivals.
One stranded passenger told CNN he spent the night at the airport with
hundreds of others after flying in from Hong Kong late Tuesday because
there were no transport options out of the terminal.
“The airport is literally filling up and there’s nowhere for anyone
to go,” said Bilal, 25, who only wished to be identified by his first
name.
Nearly 4 inches (100 mm) of rain fell over the course of just 12 hours
on Tuesday, according to weather observations at the airport – around
what Dubai usually records in an entire year, according to United
Nations data.
The rain fell so heavily and so quickly that some motorists were forced
to abandon their vehicles as the floodwater rose and roads turned into
rivers.
Video from social media showed and .
Like the rest of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai has a hot and dry
climate. As such, rainfall is infrequent and in many areas there is
limited infrastructure such as drainage to handle extreme events.
When it rained Tuesday, it absolutely poured.
Torrential rainfall events like this will become more frequent due to .
As the atmosphere continues to warm, it’s able to like a towel and
then ring it out in the form of more extreme gushes of flooding
rainfall.
The rain that plunged Dubai underwater is associated with a larger
storm system traversing the Arabian Peninsula and moving across the
Gulf of Oman. This same system is also bringing unusually wet weather
to nearby Oman and southeastern Iran.
Rain is expected to taper off in the region but a few showers may
linger Wednesday before dry weather returns.
DIR <- back to index