Heavy rains that flooded Dubai this week disrupted air traffic and damaged buildings and streets, leaving climate experts and ordinary people asking whether one of the world’s hottest and driest cities should have been better prepared for extreme storms.

Forecasters knew days in advance that a major storm was about to hit the United Arab Emirates, and authorities issued warnings asking citizens to stay home. However, its largest city, Dubai, has been brought to a standstill this week as one of the worst rainfall events in decades flooded streets, homes and highways.

“With limited rainfall in the UAE, stormwater management systems have historically been seen as an ‘unnecessary cost’,” said Karim Elgendy, associate research fellow at Chatham House’s Center for Environment and Society. “As rainfall variability in the region increases and the likelihood of such events increases, the economic case for such a system becomes stronger.”

Human-caused climate change is making extreme weather events such as heat and rainfall more intense, frequent and unpredictable. According to long-term scientific forecasts, the Middle East is expected to face rising temperatures and reduced overall rainfall. But researchers say these very dry places will also experience storms that bring unprecedented rainfall. This forces governments to consider whether and how to adapt to rare but devastating events.

Representatives of the UAE government did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.

“There’s a real trade-off when you think about costs and opportunity costs,” said Linda Shi, assistant professor of urban climate adaptation at Cornell University. “These events can be erratic and unpredictable.”

On Tuesday, the UAE was hit by the worst torrential rains since records began in 1949. Scientists and weather forecasters attributed the storm to warming oceans causing large amounts of moisture to rise into the atmosphere and then fall as rain on the Arabian Peninsula.

El Niño, a climate phenomenon that causes ocean warming and changes global weather patterns, may have influenced the storm. Several climatologists and forecasters told Bloomberg Green that climate change cannot be ruled out as a factor, although more detailed research is needed to determine its exact impact.

Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, said: “While such large-scale floods have occurred in the past, the scale and intensity of rainfall that caused them is exactly what we will see more of in a warmer world. .”in England. “It rained so much all at once that even a well-designed drainage system was struggling to cope.”

The flooding immediately drew attention to the UAE’s artificial rain program, which involves injecting particles into clouds to influence rainfall amounts. But Orup Ganguly, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, said it will take “a lot of data analysis” to determine what role, if any, it plays in making rainfall more extreme. “Major flooding in cities is often related to urban drainage and related infrastructure,” he said.

Dubai and the UAE were unprepared for such massive flooding in such a short period of time. It soon became clear that the drainage system was inadequate to absorb the floodwaters. Underground garages were completely flooded, with water flowing into streets, highways and homes.

After the storm passed, the government deployed water tankers to pump water from the streets, but days later some neighborhoods, lakes and local football fields were still under water. The impact continues to spread outward. Shelves at some local supermarkets remained empty Thursday night. Schools were closed for four days and government employees were asked to work from home if possible. Dubai International Airport said on Friday afternoon that departing flights would be allowed to operate but the number of incoming flights would be restricted for the next 48 hours.

“Cities in arid regions may be ill-prepared for heavy rainfall events because buildings, landscapes and infrastructure are not designed with drainage capacity as a primary consideration,” said Zachary Lamb, assistant professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of London )explain. University of California, Berkeley. “Climate change is shaking up long-held assumptions about landscapes and climate conditions that have shaped the design and planning of buildings and cities for generations.”

Dubai is not the only country facing this problem. Last year, a superstorm burst a dam in Libya, causing flooding that wreaked havoc on the city of Derna and killed at least 5,000 people. Last year, the Chinese capital suffered its heaviest rainfall in 140 years, with parts of Beijing also submerged. Floods destroyed homes and killed dozens of people.

“Dubai can only prepare for what it thinks is likely to happen in the future,” said Lisa Dyer, a climate adaptation expert at Columbia University. “Forecasts of future weather patterns rely largely on past weather patterns, which leaves many governments There is no preparation for the impacts of climate change that are not common in history.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)