Severe Flooding Affected the UAE, Interrupting Dubai Flights with Record Rainfall

Due to heavy rains, flights are being delayed or diverted, which is causing considerable inconveniences for flight crews at Dubai International Airport.

Within a few hours, the United Arab Emirates saw the most rainfall ever recorded in the nation’s history due to intense thunderstorms on Tuesday.

Before the nation was founded in 1971, in 1949, there was a record amount of rainfall, which flooded parts of important highways and disrupted operations at Dubai’s international airport. On Wednesday, after the intense rainstorm damaged houses and businesses and left at least one person dead, authorities and residents throughout the United Arab Emirates were cleaning up debris.

Significant delays or diversions of flights due to the heavy rains has affected flight crews, according to Dubai International Airport.

It was urged to passengers leaving Dubai to verify the status of their flight with their airline instead of going to the airport.

The airport posted on X, “We are working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions.”

Emirates stated that passengers who were already in transit will be attended to but cautioned that there may be delays in both arrivals and departures. Certain arrival and departure flights saw delays lasting hours, according to the Dubai airport website.

According to local media, an elderly man in his seventies from the United Arab Emirates passed away on Tuesday morning when his car was caught in flash floods in the northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah.

According to Omani media, which released pictures of flooded neighborhoods, three days of intense rain in neighboring Oman resulted in the deaths of nineteen individuals, including schoolchildren.

According to The Times of Oman, Wednesday is predicted to bring additional rain. The sky was clear in Dubai, but there was silence on some parts of the roads following the government’s directive for all schools and employees to work remotely for the second day in a row.

Significant damage from the heavy rain was seen in several areas of the UAE, including collapsed roads and flooded homes, according to media reports and social media posts.

On Tuesday, images of flooded parking lots and roadways with some cars fully submerged appeared on social media. Sheikh Zayed Road, a 12-lane thoroughfare that runs across Dubai, was partially submerged, resulting in hours-long traffic congestion.