Historic Rainfall Brings Dubai to a Standstill
Also today: Paris is ‘confident’ about Olympic swimming in the Seine River, and Amazon expands Sales of its cashierless tech.
A taxi navigates floodwaters in Dubai.
Photographer: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
The United Arab Emirates was battered on Tuesday by the country’s heaviest rain in 75 years, bringing Dubai to a standstill as homes flooded and cars were left stranded on inundated highways. Flights have been canceled at Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest. And at least one person in the UAE has died, along with more than a dozen in neighboring Oman from heavy rains in recent days.
Like in other cities, global warming is bringing heavier downpours to Dubai, though some question whether the city’s practice of cloud seeding — a geoengineering technology used to coax more rain from clouds — may have enhanced the storm. Dubai has been carrying out such operations since 2002 to address water security issues, despite the lack of drainage in many areas. Read more from Verity Ratcliffe and Kateryna Kadabashy today on Bloomberg: Dubai’s Record Rain Floods Expensive Homes and Halts Flights