Heavy rains cause rare flooding in Dubai

Heavy rains battered parts of the Middle East on Tuesday, closing schools in the United Arab Emirates and flooding the tarmac at Dubai International Airport. In Oman, at least 18 people have died in recent days due to the severe weather.

The storms swamped roadways and created dangerous conditions across the region, a normally arid part of the world that is unaccustomed to intense rainfall and flash flooding.

Flights into the Dubai airport were temporarily diverted as a result of the “continued exceptional weather event currently being experienced in the UAE,” airport officials said Tuesday in a statement.

Video footage obtained by Saudi Arabia’s state-owned news outlet Al Arabiya showed the tarmac in Dubai inundated, with airplanes skimming through floodwaters and support vehicles nearly submerged.

More than 4.7 inches of rain fell in a day in the UAE, flooding streets across Dubai and sending water spilling into homes and businesses, The Associated Press reported.

The UAE’s National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority urged people to stay home, saying in a post on X that cars should be parked in “safe and elevated locations,” away from flood-prone areas and places where water can accumulate.