Dubai creates own artificial rain

Scientists in the United Arab Emirates have created artificial rainfall to tackle extreme temperatures that regularly surpass 50C.

University of Reading researcher, Professor Maarten Ambaum, shared the news following success of the project that he had been working on.

According to the Professor, the UAE’s National Center of Meteorology created the ‘enhanced rain’ using drone technology that unleashes electrical charges into clouds in order for them to clump together and form precipitation.

This charge consequently makes the droplets more likely to fall as rain without using chemicals.

The country invested about $15 million towards the project to create nine different rain-enhancement projects across the state, The Independent reported.

Dubai was first on the list for the drones to be trialed as it experiences extreme temperatures of about 41°C alongside zero days of rain and they successfully created heavy downpour in the city.

Residents have been warned that more unsettled weather is likely as they celebrate Eid Al Adha this week. The UAE usually rains just a few days out of the year and sometimes no rainfall at all during the summer.

Temperatures there recently topped 125 degrees but the enhanced rain projects has been estimated to increase rainfall up to 35% although its effectiveness is still questionable.

The state previously through its Rain Enhancement Research Program announced that the National Center of Meteorology (NCM) had conducted eight cloud-seeding operations as one way of dealing with the existing problem of extreme temperatures.

However, concerns have been raised that the UAE may have gone too far in its efforts to induce rain as the rainfall is also bringing other problems such as flooding in some areas.