Index – Science – It was revealed what could have caused the infernal downpour in Dubai

A group of international climate experts called the World Weather Attribution (WWA) studied the April flood that hit the United Arab Emirates. The huge thunderstorm cloud zone caused serious damage not only in Qatar and Oman, but also in far away Yemen.

Researchers have determined that global warming and urbanization are the cause of the extreme weather phenomenon, reports The Guardian.

According to scientists, due to the intensifying El Nino climate phenomenon, torrential rains in the region have become almost 40 percent stronger. According to the report of the national meteorological center, a total of 254 millimeters of precipitation fell. Such a huge amount has not been seen in the desert country since measurements began in 1949. According to WWA’s climate experts, the weather that caused the death toll in April could also have been caused by fossil fuels in the Middle East.

Weather interference has been denied

Immediately after the downpour, there was speculation that artificial weather modification was the cause. Certain techniques have been used in the United Arab Emirates to alleviate drought since the 1990s. The procedure was first used in the United States in the 1940s. The point is that they can induce rain and snow by injecting various substances, such as salt or silver iodide, into the clouds. Nowadays, this is spread from airplanes into the clouds. This procedure is attempted up to 300 times a year in the Emirates.

The new WWA study also concluded that if there had been artificial intervention, it could not have caused such a large amount of precipitation.

Meteorology professors at the University of Reading also clearly denied the possibility of intervention. According to the article on the university’s website, an enormously elongated vortex of medium-sized thunderclouds formed in the Persian-Arabian Gulf region, which was fed by the humid air rising from the warm surface and swelled to a rarely seen size.

When asked by Index, meteorologist András Reisz said that he does not consider it likely that the clouds were poked before the natural disaster. He added that satellite images showing the Dubai area showed that the downpour and flash floods on the ground were caused by an air vortex made up of thunderstorm clouds. As an example, he mentioned the Caribbean region, where storms larger than cyclones, or hurricanes, form in the same way.

The meteorologist believes that what happened in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula could have been caused by a combination of nature and human forces, including the ever-increasing climate change.

Friederike Otto, a researcher at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change in London, stated that “we must stop burning fossil fuels. He noted that there is no water-permeable surface in cities due to concreting, so roads can turn into rivers in a short time. The researcher called the situation a death trap, adding that the problem must be remedied as soon as possible.

At least 23 people were killed in the rain that fell on the Arabian Peninsula

As we wrote, at least 23 people died in the floods that hit the Arabian Peninsula. On the 16th and 17th of April, the United Arab Emirates experienced unprecedented rain. More than a year and a half’s worth of rain fell in the space of 12 hours in the Middle Eastern country. Even Dubai International Airport (DXB) was temporarily closed.

Several videos of planes floating in water and flooding have appeared on social media. A man took a video from his car window, in which the road looks more like a river. The rushing mass of water caused damage to the shop and the apartment.

Like the rest of the UAE, Dubai has a hot and dry climate. Accordingly, precipitation rarely falls, so the infrastructure is limited in many places, including drainage, which could provide a solution for dealing with situations similar to the current one.

Follow Index on Facebook too!

I’m following you!