Severe rainfall swept across the United Arab Emirates on Friday, leading to widespread flight disruptions and flooding in several major cities. Airport authorities cancelled or delayed dozens of flights as the heaviest rain in months hit the desert nation.
Dubai-based Emirates airline cancelled 13 flights, while neighbouring Sharjah airport also reported delays and cancellations following overnight storms marked by lightning and thunder. Sharjah’s main thoroughfare was submerged early Friday, with residents wading through floodwaters and even cycling through streets where water reached wheel height.
The flooding brought back memories of April 2024, when record-breaking rainfall paralysed Dubai and forced the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights. Ahead of the latest storm, Dubai police had urged residents to remain indoors unless travel was absolutely necessary.
By Friday morning, water-pumping trucks were deployed across Dubai to clear flooded roads and large pools of standing water. Dubai Airports confirmed that adverse weather conditions were responsible for the delays and cancellations.
The National Centre of Meteorology had warned of rainfall across the UAE from Thursday to Friday, including in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Other Gulf countries were also affected, with heavy rain in Qatar leading to the cancellation of the Arab Cup third-place football match between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Last year’s unprecedented rainfall—the heaviest recorded in the UAE in 76 years—claimed at least four lives and disrupted daily life for days. Climate researchers have since found that global warming driven by fossil fuel emissions likely intensified those extreme weather events.
