Nearly 10 centimeters of rain fell in just 12 hours on Tuesday - roughly what Dubai receives in a whole year. Dubai, like the rest of the United Arab Emirates, has a hot and dry climate.
As a result, rainfall is rare, and the infrastructure is not in place to deal with extreme events. Video on social media showed water rushing through an area shopping center and flooding the ground floors of homes. Video shows the runway at Dubai International Airport - which was recently named the second largest airport in the world - under water. Videos of widespread power outages are also circulating. There were also heavy, unexpected rains in Greece in September 2023. Oman is even worse affected; ten schoolchildren, among others, died here. Extreme weather events have become more common in recent decades, which is why extreme weather events like this are becoming more common.