Flood In Dubai:
One of the heaviest rainfall was recorded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), after a severe thunderstorm hit the country. The storm had initially hit Oman before it landed in the UAE.
- UAE lies in the arid regions of the world, so such heavy rainfalls are unusual there.
- On average, Dubai experiences 94.7 mm of rain in a year.
- But this event was historic as it brought more than 142 mm of rainfall that had soaked Dubai over 24 hours.
- The possible causes for such catastrophic event may be attributed to following reasons.
- Climate Change along with multiple factors associated with it like patterns of natural climate variability, such as El Niño and La Niña, has contributed to the extreme rain.
- It has led to higher temperatures causing evaporation of water not only from land but also oceans and other water bodies, causing a warmer atmosphere to hold more moisture.
- For every 1 degree Celsius rise in average temperature, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture.
- This makes storms more dangerous as it leads to an increase in precipitation intensity, duration and/or frequency of storm.
- Cloud seeding is a process in which chemicals such as silver iodide crystals are implanted into clouds to increase rainfall in an environment where water scarcity is a concern.
- UAE, located in one of the hottest and driest regions on earth, has been leading the effort to seed clouds and increase precipitation.
- Thunderstorms are generated by atmospheric imbalance and turbulence caused by a combination of several conditions, including unstable, warm air rising rapidly into the atmosphere; sufficient moisture to form clouds and rain; and upward lift of air currents caused by colliding weather fronts (cold and warm), sea breezes, or mountains.
