Did "cloud-seeding" contribute?
Rain also fell in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. However, the rains were acute across the UAE. One reason may have been "
cloud seeding," in which small planes flown by the government go through clouds burning special salt flares. Those flares can increase precipitation.
Several reports quoted meteorologists at the National Center for Meteorology as saying they flew six or seven cloud-seeding flights before the rains. The center did not immediately respond to questions Wednesday, though flight-tracking data analyzed by the AP showed one aircraft affiliated with the UAE's cloud-seeding efforts flew around the country Sunday.
The UAE, which relies heavily on energy-hungry desalination plants to provide water,
conducts cloud seeding in part to increase its dwindling, limited groundwater.