Schools and many companies in the United Arab Emirates were closed on Thursday as torrential rains returned to the desert country just two weeks after record downpours blamed on climate change.
A lightning storm with powerful winds raced throughout the oil-rich monarchy overnight, with some regions receiving more than 50 millimetres (two inches) of rain by 8:00 a.m., according to the National Centre of Meteorology.
Flooding was reported in several areas of the financial capital Dubai, and the city’s airport, the world’s busiest for international passenger traffic, cancelled 13 flights and diverted five, according to a spokesperson.
Emirates, a state-owned airline located in Dubai, and sibling carrier flydubai have both warned passengers of delays as schools transition to online learning and public-sector workplaces close.
But the rains were not on the scale of April 16, when a record 259.5 mm of rain left four people dead, blocked major roads for days and forced the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights.
On Thursday, little traffic was seen on Dubai’s normally heaving, six-lane highways, and cars were abandoned on flooded roads near the sprawling Ibn Battuta mall.
Trucks pumping water were stationed in several flooded areas, as Dubai’s drainage is often unable to cope with large-scale rainfall.
Last month’s downpour, which also killed 21 people in neighbouring Oman, was the heaviest in the UAE, a majority-expatriate federation of seven sheikhdoms, since records began in 1949.
World Weather Attribution, a network of scientists that assesses the role of climate change in extreme weather events, found the deluge was “most likely” exacerbated by global warming caused by burning fossil fuels.