What is behind the record downpour? | DW News

One of the world's busiest travel hubs - Dubai International Airport - has partially resumed operations after heavy flooding forced it to close on Wednesday. The standstill came after the United Arab Emirates was hit by a record breaking storm. More rain fell in a 24 hour period than ever before. At least one person was killed and many homes and businesses were damaged.
00:00 Background
02:24 Raghu Murtugudde, Earth Systems Scientist
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#dubai #rain #climate

[@philipmcdonagh1094]

Ireland here, could you please return our rain.

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

💀💀💀

[@mariahewitt9787]

God Bless the Irish, from Australia. I'll try and direct some rain over there, we have plenty.

[@gokulkrishna4011]

They stole ur rain . What will u do

[@Firecul]

Scotland here, they can have as much of ours as they want.

[@MrJumper68]

You can have the rain from Denmark. Its almost been raining every day for a year

[@berserkirclaws107]

No ones cares about the ultra rich but Dubai normal residents and the poor people who live there too just went through such a terrible time.

[@timetraveler_0]

Why we don't care about the ultra rich? They are evil because they made money? You know they create the jobs that you slave away your life to, right?

[@berlineczka]

And the cat :(

[@joelc9439]

And non-ultra rich...

[@kreight_]

dude's sporting a wicked pair of glasses

[@SalehKhanaVlogs]

the like mr tasters from iran

[@antoinepageau8336]

Could spend more on his 🦷

[@MissylovesTrouble]

Johnny Depp has a pair but the frames are brown. I forgot who the designer is.

[@Adam-nw1vy]

I was marveling at the glasses but then I saw the elastic band on the goatee 😂😂

[@Drew-cv2jl]

I didn't even see the glasses, my eyes were on the ponytailed beard

[@zebibacker0423]

Stop playing with the nature please?

[@l-dogtheman1685]

Oil lobbyists are too powerful, that's why they won't stop messing with nature by putting billions of tons of carbon emissions in the air

[@joejohnson6327]

2 late

[@HussainAbbas22]

Exactly and stop blaming global warming!!

[@gokulkrishna4011]

Then fight to protect it

[@eduardadhi110]

they just want to experience hard rain ...running around in rain...

[@danielmakhubela250]

So basically no one is gonna talk about cloud seeding thats been happening in Dubai

[@williamwatitwa3534]

This is an ally, we don't do that

[@IamCherished]

One feline resident clinging for dear life saved 😍

[@iduabsura4959]

Glad it was rescued

[@labourlawact7826]

Yeah. Poor kitty has never seen something like this 🙈💚🐈🧡🐈‍⬛😻

[@reylauresta3836]

Terrible engineer no decent drainage system 😅😅

[@mohammedowais7398]

They never expect this

[@Marwan-tx5nb]

They had the equivalent of 5 month worth of London rainfall in 24 hrs.

[@sultanmswahilitv4864]

Chinese engineers

[@TravelingFrames]

They had a 1-2 years worth of rain dumped in 48 hours

[@moedark4390]

seriously, an adequate storm drain system would not be hard to make, youre on the freaking ocean. I think they just took for granted their average rainfall

[@lorenzoblum868]

Amazing how everyone is an expert here in the comment section.

[@Mantaray911]

Watch the Redacted video this morning about Dubai rain. The reporter literally goes inside the Dubai Meteorology Department the day before the rain and the manager shows them on the big screens how they are busy cloud seeding and how it works.

[@DXB1314]

In Dubai no any drainage system and no any sewerage line it is very shocking. They make Too much sky scrapers and don't make a single sewerage 😂

[@ruleoflaw2954]

They believe they are forever a desert place. They even didnt bother to build their airports, buildings and road on elevated grounds.

[@Delgado587]

They need to create more artificial lakes

[@SPeeSimon]

That is what you can expect. It's a country in a desert. Not much rain going on there, usually. So no need for drainage. Maybe in the future it will change. But i think they will prefer to use that water and not waste it, because their regular drinking water comes from the sea and needs a lot of processing to become drinkable. Rain doesn't require that much processing. So simply dumping the water into the sewer and not using it, is a total waste.

[@DieterDuplak314]

hence they build sky scrapers so all can pile up

[@Tony.L9793]

now they know how important drainage systems are to counter heavy floods like this😂

[@mgithaiga1]

They should scoop up and store the water and give the desalination plants a break.

[@denkendannhandeln]

True, but hey that would mean that some of those sheiks would have to make practical decisions instead of pure prestige decisions. Not going to happen any time soon.

[@mgithaiga1]

@@denkendannhandeln true

[@SPeeSimon]

​@@denkendannhandeln they already had a plan to greenify the desert by making a canal. With this water, they can make it bigger. How is that for prestige. 😁

[@denkendannhandeln]

@@SPeeSimon I do not know? What sense does it make in a desert to plant anything, that consumes 20 times as much water as normally, just to stay alive? With no fertile soil? With such a high sun radiation that the water evaporates way to fast, leaving the little soil they have covered in salt? What plant can survive summertime with 45 degrees heat apart from cactuses? And how do you want to stop the sand storms covering any plantation within minutes with meters of sand? Sounds to me like an other idiotic project waiting to fail. Like the burn Al Arab. Who had thought that building a tower made of glas is not such a good idea in a desert? It costs up to 25.000 dollars to cool an average apartment down to temperatures that humans can survive - monthly. And have you ever seen what a sandstorm causes on glass when it hits with 100 miles per hour? All I see there is idiotic. Imagine having that much money and all you do with it is wasting it. Other countries would have invented a cure against cancer with such funds by now…. Doing something useful for humanity for once.

[@Risran]

Oh maaan! The exotic car market for flooded cars is about to go crazy

[@harryjones5260]

is it weird how these reports only ever worry about the airports, never the locals?

[@Silks-]

Capitalism 🤑

[@nikpapado9785]

Because this single airport affects the lives of millions of people around the globe.

[@nikpapado9785]

@@Silks- Capitalism is the right to ownership, i'd suggest you to use your right to education before exercising your right to free speech.

[@Baddy187]

El niño, too much cloud engineering and no drainage Let's talk about climate change...

[@l-dogtheman1685]

Do people actually believe billion of tons of carbon emissions have no effect, yet not even a ton of material for cloud seeding is causing all the damage? Releasing carbon emissions is geoengineering, CO2 is in fact a chemical. But a conspiracy that oil lobbyists are manipulating governments and the population worldwide for their own gain would be too obvious, right? Btw, is everybody completely ignoring the fact that seeding clouds happens with dust and all kinds of other stuff in nature, but does not actually change the amount of water in the air, it just allows the water to fall down?

[@Ann.b23]

Could be just over use of cloud seeding! I love how they cause an issues to push an agenda.

[@Mantaray911]

Watch the Redacted video this morning about Dubai rain. The reporter literally goes inside the Dubai Meteorology Department the day before the rain and the manager shows them on the big screens how they are busy cloud seeding and how it works.

[@hueyfreeman7810]

Lack of drainage doesn't help either. Last year when i was in Bahrain; it rained a little bit, and there was floor here and here. I looked closer for drainages and gutters, they were non-existent.

[@SideWalkAstronomyNetherlands]

Maybe they should build a system for rain water, underground pipes and basins etc... And a separate sewage system, maybe? Like grown up countries have..

[@jasperedwards2713]

i want to know about dubai man made 13 billion islands are theysinking faster after this rain its not important news there not showing it

[@elvisamoah2476]

Be carefull with what you wish for. They have be saying Dubai is a desert and that they need water and now they have rain water now.

[@anupamsarkar6492]

Forget about cloud seeding who else noticed the guest's beard is like little girl's hair tied with rubber band in opposite direction .

[@timetraveler_0]

And his glasses, couldn't decide between round and square.

[@98YesUcan]

Why so judgmental, just stuck to the insights he bestowed. Only for that he was here.

[@jeromepacheco6005]

China is a world largest contributor of CO2 more than USA, India, Russia and Japan combined

[@michaelfennell]

werent they playing with weather modification / cloud seeding?

[@knowone353]

Before you all jump to conclusions, just remember that northern Africa was once covered in lush vegetation and had the large freshwater lakes, it will return again, maybe sooner than we expect.

[@mishukzoo]

This is like God saying: No no, no one is above mother nature. It's just a shame that this storm disproportionately hit everyday people, but I do hope the billionaires of Dubai take notice.

[@khurrammalik5865]

Nobody is talking about the poorest draining system Dubai failed badly

[@freshprintsbyblair1333]

I've seen other videos saying it was cloud seeding and they are OPEN about this?

[@khurrammalik5865]

Dubai’s poor drainage system is to blame for this catastrophe not the Rain here in United States we always have cloudburst and no flooding like that

[@topicalstormofficial]

Oh no, the dessert is going to be getting more rain now.

[@shadowkillz9606]

Yeha and the forest is facing droughts. A catastrophic switcharoo. Time to raid your house

[@madknox4666]

@@shadowkillz9606 What you on drugs ?

[@mdhasan8282]

This was mentioned by Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) that Arabia would be green again and would be covered by a lot of rivers before the end of time.

[@ImtyazbhaiVohra]

Desertic cult become jungle cult

[@mariahewitt9787]

Cloud Seeding?

[@Gus-cg9yp]

They think that they are the center of the world and they forget to put the drain pipes hahah

[@AvalonCN]

You had an excellent expert on this program. He did a great job of explaining everything very clearly.

[@salahelackad2005]

I share the same view about him, and your comment is the most objective.

[@nikpapado9785]

@@salahelackad2005 This is a generic comment from a bot that would fit a huge percentage of the videos on youtube, they are designed to fish people in their accounts for views and likes.

[@Dynamic101]

​@@nikpapado9785 what should we do then ??

[@nikpapado9785]

@@Dynamic101 report it for spam

[@ijumpjudy8]

Real

[@JohEl777]

Funny how I got an ad to go to Dubai before this, saying it won some TripAdvisor award 3 years in a row or something.

[@Artnotforthesakeofart]

Thank you for saving that cat 🥺

[@Mr.frag-out]

They better save up all that water to feed that desert.

[@williamthatsmyname]

Don't forget that they practice cloud seeding. They have more chemical rain then any other similar city.

[@prismarineslab]

It´s almost almost like they talked about it in the video at 5:41

[@selecttravelvacations7472]

Except Los Angeles of course.

[@Mantaray911]

Watch the Redacted video this morning about Dubai rain. The reporter literally goes inside the Dubai Meteorology Department the day before the rain and the manager shows them on the big screens how they are busy cloud seeding and how it works.

[@CaneBTC]

Am sure arabs flying around cloud seeding had nothing to do with it...

[@selecttravelvacations7472]

More likely it was the US.

[@Mantaray911]

Watch the Redacted video this morning about Dubai rain. The reporter literally goes inside the Dubai Meteorology Department the day before the rain and the manager shows them on the big screens how they are busy cloud seeding and how it works.

[@Mantaray911]

05:49 he doesn't know what he is talking about. Watch the Redacted video this morning about Dubai rain. The reporter literally goes inside the Dubai Meteorology Department the day before the rain and the manager shows them on the big screens how they are busy cloud seeding and how it works.

[@joelc9439]

@0:38: No, those are not cars, those are LandCruisers, trucks, etc.

[@mtahir9999]

The operations must have stopped prior to the storm as predicted earlier, then the 1000's of stranded passengers would hv not suffered and avoided airline costs, hope someone learn out of this lesson learnt!

[@uelld.8371]

Didn't the Cop28 president, UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber says _"There is ‘no science’ indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict climate change"_ four months ago? 😅

[@thomasnew8606]

"Experts" and climate change. Some of the favorite words of media.

[@Dynamic101]

No fun driving exotic cars 2:15 when the road is flooded 1:46 and the cats are drowning 0:43 with 0:09 climate being unprecedentely unfavorable I 'm currently feeling déjà vu

[@user-km2hm2zf6s]

Gott schütze Euch und gibt Euch die nötige Kraft, all die Schäden zu beseitigen! Am wichtigsten die Sicherheit der Kleinsten!🙏

[@mikerelf1362]

sorry we have no idea what you are saying

[@user-4m9-dr80h4]

Tsk, tsk, tsk . . . Now they'll have to buy new BMWs, VWs, Audis, Mercedes, Porsches . . .

[@dvdso]

But a great part of people there are boycotting because of German support for Israeli massacre in Palestine.

[@user-kt4ky9my3q]

It seems Dubai never thought about this situation and got caught in extreme weather. It also shows the real picture of Dubai.

[@alejandrobriceno96]

"One feline resident" 😭

[@Brightlight-bd9jc]

This powerful rainfall is natures fury and not cloud seeding Dubai met office

[@sunnycriti9809]

Where is the waterreservoir to store this abundance of water ? Nature is not a joke

[@shadabfariduddin6784]

Why did you not build the drainage? Because we dont waste money underground.

[@Truthseeker371]

Climate change or over urbanisation? No trees and letouts.

[@whocares264]

how apt , this country caused it....karma

[@akifjaved1790]

This expert is so good at explaining stuff!

[@world920]

Big problem is no drainage system in this poor country. Dubai is too much poor

[@mariogarcia9851]

Flood not due to climate change or mount of rainfall but the absence of drainage system. Poor city planning indeed!

[@avv2795]

That guys glasses and beard!

[@mr.sudbury3856]

It has been raining for 3 months in the Faroe Islands. We could use some sun 😂

[@johnathanmunai3891]

Mother nature aint unstoppable

[@nizamieminov3648]

In this instance there may not beem cloud seeding but cloud seeding in general may have contributed to the local climate change.

[@hamidhamidi3134]

Cloud seeding gone wrong 😅

[@BS-jp6tg]

So we gonna blame this on climate change rather than dubai messing with rainfall by cloud seeding?

[@jaysonp9426]

Yes

[@Grk149]

Of course! Because from one side we are being told how much of an imbalance a small difference in climate conditions makes worldwide, but creating rain where it wouldn’t naturally occur has zero effect on local and regional climate. Promise!

[@JeffBilkins]

Why not both?

[@levi799]

Do you even know how cloud seeding works and how much rain it has contributed? Why am I even asking? I'm not really surprised that a denialost has no clue about what he's talking about. Let me guess, the earth is flat too, right?

[@BS-jp6tg]

@@levi799 you got the temperament of an unhinged 13yo school boy. Making up strawmans isn't gonna cut it in this world.

[@adsrvndrn4552]

I want to mention that flooded EV needs to be parked in different locations because EVs catch fire in the presence of the water.

[@168tsai8]

How about actually building drainage system as part of their construction planning. At least they saved the kitty.

[@dnhman]

Maybe stop seeding???

[@Mantaray911]

Watch the Redacted video this morning about Dubai rain. The reporter literally goes inside the Dubai Meteorology Department the day before the rain and the manager shows them on the big screens how they are busy cloud seeding and how it works.

[@jaysonp9426]

But Tiktok said...

[@connecting-minds-network]

There was a time on planet when it rained for 200,000 years continuously. That time was mother of all climate change.

[@nightcoregirlprinzeugen7234]

The crustal pole shift is about occur

[@raclark2730]

Such is life on this crazy old world.

[@TheRealBlueValhalla]

Which celestial body is that?

[@nightcoregirlprinzeugen7234]

@@TheRealBlueValhalla Planet Nibiru

[@nightcoregirlprinzeugen7234]

@@TheRealBlueValhalla Planet Nibiru is four times the diameter of Earth.

[@Xingqiwu387]

The CLIMATE is always changing, sometimes drastically. How many ice ages has the earth experienced? How many eras similar to the Jurassic period when dinosaurs thrived? Greenland was once green with lush vegetation!

[@vijaychitte6921]

UAE DOES NOT HAVE AT ALL THE INFRASTRUCTURE TO DEAL WITH THE RAIN WATER ... THEY COMPLETELY IGNORED WHILE CONSTRUCTING THE CITIES THEY CALLED COUNTRIES TO MANAGE SUCH HUGE AMOUNT OF WATER... WHY THEY WANT CLOUD SEEDING?

[@D.A.M96]

Trillions in cars flooded and now can be bought cheap 🤔

[@Delgado587]

Start the water pump

[@woofy60]

they already was blessed with oil.. now they have water too.... this is more of a blessings .. and Dubai is advance in its water system for sure they will build drainage and turn this into a big dam...

[@karlkim]

I want whatever glasses that the professor is wearing. 2:25

[@therocket1476]

That’s alright because Indian labours can clean it up in 2 days each day given a salary of $5 for 14 hours work . If it’s not too much .

[@branimirsalevic5092]

Let's blame the problem on climate change, not on hyper urbanization & dramatic way of life change...

[@nicholas8997]

So happy I dont live there ! Dubai will get abandoned within 20 years due to rise in extreme weather: Lethal high temperatures around 50 Celcius and storms. BAD investment long term.

[@Dynamic101]

Cat didn't do anything. The cats r innocent

[@TheErnestotoposse]

they used silver iodide to increase the probability for rain.

[@Sakazuki_Bepu]

That glasses tho.

[@charleswebb2545]

UAE cloud seeding...🤡

[@garishpatel6254]

Yes … but those glasses also deserve an explanation

[@Suitswonderland]

We can water seed, places which need more rain and places which need less could switch but its illegal too manipulate the weather so no matter what its global warming and not governments trying too create rain in a desert nation with little foresight (I want them too do the same with Scotland but like drop the rain before it hits main land at-least once a month, give us one day a month without rain)

[@jjohnson5014]

This climate scientist is a hoot!

[@SeanAbbey]

These rains could easily fill the ground water aquifers unfortunately the locals are a dumb lot 😂

[@SheepofTheShepherd-nu3lz]

If only folks understood that God is no joke and they would repent and seek his Forgiveness, we wouldn't have these problems

[@riaanknoetze387]

NOT CLIMATE CHANGE, YAHWEH (GOD) TELLING US IT'S THE END TIMES

[@midlifecrisis920]

Those glasses.... ! I want them

[@sentient1640]

good

[@oskadavid2964]

THSI IS WHAT YOU GET FOR SUPPORTING ISRAEL AND HVING THEM IN YOUR COUNTRY

[@sayfde4941]

Raghu is wearing a square & circle shape glasses.. 🤪

[@mosesmuriri594]

😂

[@hologramhouse729]

My best guess: a rainstorm 🤓

[@user-zb9rn9vl9q]

Cloud seeding is cannot be used to make a flood. I used to work this. Cloud seeding has the potential to reduce flooding and modify rainfall volume - but... It's for me to make it at some point.

[@bev8200]

Storms happen, climates change

[@deirdraplummer2009]

So they did this to themselves

[@jkim9972]

Stop cutting trees in Africa to build luxuries for the rich. We all share one ozone layer.

[@CARLIN4737]

This is the beginning of the end.

[@stephentran6874]

This what happens when Dubai becomes too rich

[@okman9684]

Climate change?

[@johnsmith-ro2tw]

they cannot help it. Doing more smelly farts than usual ? => climate change

[@Playa-Nima]

Nope. Cloud seeding is done for years now

[@Mantaray911]

@@Playa-Nima Watch the Redacted video this morning about Dubai rain. The reporter literally goes inside the Dubai Meteorology Department the day before the rain and the manager shows them on the big screens how they are busy cloud seeding and how it works.

[@wqv5423ln]

Matthew 24 & 25

[@PK-999]

Elon Musk predicts AI will be smarter than a human that burned up $22 Billion by buying a social media company..........

[@KazimirPerko]

🙂

[@JoeRogansGutBiome]

Car sales will be thru the roof. Everyone will need a new or used car. Mow even more car thefts are foong to happen around the world so that they can be shipped here.

[@alaaa1794]

Dubai drill drill drill

[@misterfunnybones]

Water is the main culprit😂

[@trilcegarcia9373]

I thought it was called ''El niño'' because ''niños'' causes tamtrums :P

[@SeanAbbey]

For once a DW interviews a true expert, thank you Professor Raghu, rather than the usual un-PC hippies talking utter nonsense 😂 Honestly DW, you got class English speakers rather than the pigeon German English speakers doing interviews….. now, but still a long way to match BBC which unfortunately reports the opposite of the truth.