A family standing in the rain as they chase infrequent rain showers in Fujairah, UAE. (Below) The vast desert stretch of the Arabian peninsula, known as the Empty Quarter, which includes parts of the UAE, has a weather pattern that keeps the clouds out. — AP
OUTSIDE of a mountain village in the northern outskirts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), clouds on a recent weekend suddenly crowded out the white-hot sun that bakes this desert nation in the summer months.
Fierce winds blew over planters and pushed a dumpster down the street. And then came the most infrequent visitor of all: rain.
Rainfall has long fascinated the people of the Emirates. That includes both its white-thobed locals crowding into the deserts for any downpour and its vast population of foreign workers, many coming from homes in the Indian subcontinent who grew up with monsoon deluges.
With some four million people now estimated to be living in Dubai alone compared to around 255,000 in 1980, pressure on water consumption continues.
Meanwhile, as weather patterns change with global warming, the country saw the heaviest recorded rainfall ever last year that disrupted worldwide travel and now has its leaders reconsidering how to build as residents nervously look to the skies.
“Out here, rain is almost like a firework event,” said Howard Townsend, an unofficial weather forecaster in Dubai with a Facebook following.
“It’s too hot to go outside. When you get a rain event, it’s like a blessing, a release.”
The UAE, home to an estimated 10 million people in total, sits along both the Persian Gulf to its north and west and the Gulf of Oman to the east. The stone Hajar Mountains separate it from Oman.
Along the southern borders of the peninsula, monsoon rains can hit seaside areas of Oman and Yemen. But the vast desert stretch of the peninsula, known as the Empty Quarter, has a weather pattern that keeps the clouds out.
That means little to no rain, sometimes for years at a time in some areas. For the Emirates, that has meant relying heavily on some 70 water desalination plants to supply drinking water as well as drip irrigation for plants that can rely on recycled wastewater. Dams have also been built in to catch and store water runoff.
Even then, the UAE ranks seventh worldwide for being at risk for water scarcity, according to the World Resources Institute. Groundwater reservoirs have been known to be under pressure for years.
The UAE also has been “cloud seeding” for years, flying aircraft to release chemicals into clouds to try to induce rains.
“Water is more important than oil,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, then the leader of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi, reportedly said back in 2011.
That’s particularly true in Dubai, where its booming population strains its roadways. The government-owned utility, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, reported producing 683.7 billion litres of water last year alone through desalination, with water demand continuing to grow alongside the city-state.
Yet Emirati government statistics suggest residents use around 550 litres of water per day, which is among some of the highest usage around the world.
But for all the fascination with rain, there’s fear now as well for many after the April 2024 floods that swept across Dubai.
In one day, more rain fell than ever recorded since 1949, when the officials in what became the UAE first began taking statistics.
More than 142mm of rainfall soaked Dubai over 24 hours. An average year sees 94.7mm of rain at Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel.
In the time since, government utility vehicles and ambulances increasingly sport snorkels to avoid water getting into their engines, something residents also have installed on their own vehicles. Insurance losses have been estimated to be as high as US$4bil.
Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum also announced a US$8bil plan to build a massive rainwater drainage system.
The project represents “the largest rainwater collection project in a single system in the region,” Sheikh Mohammed said in a statement in June.
But the rains also can bring joy to this desert.
On a recent weekend, Muhammed Sajjad Kalliyadan Poil looked to the skies in the eastern deserts of the UAE. Directly above him was a cumulonimbus cloud, looking rain heavy and ready to drop. That was the one, he said.
Muhammed Sajjad, like other Indians from Kerala who make up a large number of foreign workers in the Emirates, gather to chase the weather on days like this.
As he and his colleagues pulled up to an area against a mountain road under construction, the first drops fell on their windshield.
He got out, standing in the sudden shower as others with him did the same.
“We come from an area where the rain happens every day,” Muhammed Sajjad said. “When the drop hits us, I return to my childhood.” — AP
