--- title: "Government Denies Dubai Flooding Was Due to Cloud-Seeding Experiments" description: "After decades of cloud seeding, the UAE is insisting that Dubai's historic flooding is not related to its weather modification experiments." date: "2024-04-17" modified: "2024-04-17" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/uae-flooding-cloud-seeding" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "cloud seeding" - "geoengineering" - "united arab emirates" - "weather modification" --- # Government Denies Dubai Flooding Was Due to Cloud-Seeding Experiments ![After decades of cloud seeding, the UAE is insisting that Dubai's historic flooding is not related to its weather modification experiments.]() *\Image: Stringer / Anadolu via Getty / Futurism\* After decades of cloud seeding — the practice, basically, of manipulating clouds to encourage rain — the United Arab Emirates is insisting that [Dubai's historic flooding]() isn't related to its long-running weather modification experiments. In a [statement to *The National*](), the UAE's state-owned English-language newspaper, a representative from the country's National Centre of Meteorology said that the government's cloud seeding planes, which [introduce crystalline chemicals]() into clouds to [increase rainfall](), didn't approach the storm system brewing over the Persian Gulf earlier in the week. "One of the basic principles of cloud seeding is that you have to target clouds in its early stage before it rains," the agency's statement read. "If you have a severe thunderstorm situation then it is too late to conduct any seeding operation." In a separate report, [*Bloomberg* pointed out]() that the UAE — which called the downpours "rains of goodness" — has conducted cloud seeding experiments to stimulate rain [for decades](). It also reported that although the state's weather modification planes weren't dispatched on Tuesday, when Dubai's storm started, they had gone out on Monday and Tuesday. https://twitter.com/accuweather/status/1780624015620526387 As [*CNN* notes](), the unprecedented storm that shut down the Dubai airport and [resulted in at least one death]() thus far has seen the greatest rainfall in the region [for 75 years](). Some areas got as much as 10 inches of rainfall within 24 hours, which for a desert country unequipped for such precipitation has been devastating. With heavy rains gripping the entire region for weeks, there have been more deaths in the neighboring country of Oman, where flash flooding led to the [demise of 18 people](), including schoolchildren, [per that country's emergency management service](). In [estimation of *Wired*](), where reporters have for months been preparing a project on the Emirates' cloud seeding operations, this flooding seems to be less about weather control and more about infrastructure and climate change. "It’s exciting to point the finger at a scary technology, but the real cause of the flooding is likely more banal: Dubai is comically ill-equipped to deal with rainfall," *Wired*'s Amit Katwala wrote. "The city has expanded rapidly over the past few decades, with little attention paid to infrastructure like storm drains that could help it deal with a sudden influx of water. It’s largely concrete and glass, and there’s very little green space to soak up rainfall. The result is chaos whenever it rains — though to be fair, most cities would struggle to deal with a year’s worth of rain falling in 12 hours." Add in climate change altering the region's "complex weather dynamics" and you have, well, a perfect storm. "City planners around the world are trying to make their cities 'spongier' to help deal with flash flooding and save more water for drier parts of the year," Katwala continued. "Instead of using cloud seeding to turn the sky into a sponge, Dubai would be better off trying to turn the city into one." **More on climate:** [*The UN's Climate Chief Says We Have Just Two Years to Save the Planet*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()