Dubai │ Dubai flood │Up to 10 inches of rain caused record floods in Dubai, leaving 18 people dead in Oman.

Up to 10 inches of rain caused record floods in Dubai, leaving 18 people dead in Oman.

The storms appeared to inundate the tarmac, forcing a temporary diversion of flights into Dubai International Airport.

By Denise Chow

On Wednesday, the Arabian Peninsula was struck by an unusual amount of rain and flooding, which caused aircraft to be grounded and schools to be closed. The United Arab Emirates, a desert nation, saw 10 inches of rain fall in a single day.
According to Oman's National Committee for Emergency Management, at least 18 individuals have passed away as a result of the extreme weather in recent days.

Across the region—which is generally desert and unaccustomed to heavy rain and flash flooding—the storms flooded roads and produced perilous circumstances.

Early on Wednesday, the airport in Dubai sent travelers the advice to avoid going there unless "absolutely necessary." Major airline Emirates announced on X that it will not be accepting passenger check-ins at Dubai until Wednesday at midnight (3 p.m. ET).

The UAE saw more rain than it has ever had since records have been kept in 1949, when the region was still under British rule and before oil was discovered, according to the National Center of Meteorology in Abu Dhabi.
In less than twenty-four hours, ten inches of train were delivered to the Khatm Al Shakla neighborhood outside of Al Ain, close to the Oman border.

The center for meteorology described it as "an exceptional event in the UAE’s climate history since the start of recording climate data, and it is expected that the coming hours will witness the recording of larger amounts of rainfall."

The state-owned news station Al Arabiya in Saudi Arabia was able to capture footage showing the Dubai tarmac flooded, with support trucks almost completely submerged and airplanes just able to skim the floodwaters.

At midnight on Tuesday, the city of Dubai had received 5.59 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. This is equivalent to 3.73 inches of rain annually on average at Dubai Airport, a major hub for travel to and from the Middle East.


The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority of the United Arab Emirates advised residents to stay indoors, stating on X that automobiles should be placed in "safe and elevated locations," away from regions that are vulnerable to flooding and where water can collect. 

Prior to the storm, government workers were told to work remotely, and private schools around the United Arab Emirates were closed.

Although the United Arab Emirates is renowned for its dry weather and arid climate, it occasionally experiences winter precipitation.

In neighboring Oman, storms and heavy rain in recent days killed 10 schoolchildren and an adult driver in a vehicle that was overtaken by floodwaters, according to the AP.

This week's exceptionally wet weather also affected other countries of the Middle East, such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Though studies have shown that a warmer atmosphere owing to climate change can contain more moisture, which in turn can fuel more violent storms and intense rain, it is yet too early to tell whether global warming played a part in the recent storms.