Dubai, flood and flooding after torrential rain: inconvenience at the airport

Dubai International Airport (DXB), the busiest in the world for the transport of international passengers, has issued an urgent warning through a post on

The bad weather warning continues in the United Arab Emirates. Glitzy Dubai is in a tailspin due to the incessant rains that have been affecting the desert city since Monday night. In two days, 254 millimeters of rain fell – experts say – as much as normally falls in about two years. According to local media, this is the largest flood ever seen before the formation of the United Arab Emirates dating back to 1971. Flooding roads, endless queues along the six-lane highways. The airport of the Arab capital, the busiest in the world, is paralysed. And in the meantime, the first victims of these torrential rains are being counted.

The victims of the storm

A 70-year-old man died after being dragged away in his car in Ras Al-Khaimah, one of the country’s seven emirates, police said. The storms hit the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain overnight Monday and Tuesday after hitting Oman, where 18 people, including several children, lost their lives. Climatologist Friederike Otto, a specialist in assessing the role of climate change on extreme weather events, told AFP that it was very likely that “global warming has made the storms worse”.

Flights delayed or diverted

Dubai International Airport (DXB) advises “not to travel to the airport unless absolutely necessary: ​​flights are delayed or diverted” due to the torrential rains that have caused widespread flooding in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries. The images published on the web speak for themselves. Rivers of water on the airport runways. Dozens of flights canceled and diverted due to the storm. Long taxi queues at the hub. “We are working around the clock to respond to the emergency,” the airport says. Dubai’s flagship airline, Emirates, canceled all check-ins on Wednesday as staff and passengers struggled to arrive and depart, with access roads flooded and some metro services suspended.