Inoculated clouds

Was weather manipulation to blame for record flooding?

Landfall in the desert - but were vaccinated clouds really to blame?

(Bild: AP)

Gigantic amounts of rain completely submerged Dubai on Tuesday - due to the enormous extent of the flash floods, conspiracy theories about the event are now also stirring. At the forefront: the Saudis themselves are said to be responsible by means of cloud seeding. But is this even a realistic scenario?

Cloudseeding is indeed an issue in the United Arab Emirates: the government is using weather-modifying technology to counteract the country's persistent water shortage. By artificially influencing clouds, the amount of precipitation is to be increased in order to strengthen the water reserves.

Condensation nuclei to make clouds rain
Cloudseeding involves spraying substances such as silver iodide or salt into the clouds using aircraft. These particles serve as condensation nuclei to form water droplets, which then coalesce to form raindrops. This is by no means a new technology - US researchers have been formulating the first theories on this since the 1940s and have also carried out corresponding tests.

Roads became streams - the sewage systems in the Emirates were completely overloaded.

(Bild: AP)

However, critics have enormous doubts about the efficiency of the measure. In addition to the fact that possible long-term effects on the ecosystem and the environment are difficult to assess, several studies and analyses also cast doubt on the cost-benefit ratio of the method. The enormous costs are usually offset by a rather weak rain result.

Dubai claims not to have inoculated clouds
Nonetheless, the cause of the flash flood was quickly identified by some, especially on social networks. The rumor that official bodies in Dubai had brought the catastrophe on themselves using this method persists.

In the Emirates, they don't want to know anything about it: The National Center of Meteorology (NCM) stressed to "CNBC", for example, that no such operations had been carried out prior to the heavy rainfall event - the local government also vehemently denies any deployment.

Amount of rain "can NEVER be caused by cloud seeding"
 Leading meteorologists take a similar view. "This is fictitious and stupid nonsense," comments Jörg Kachelmann, for example, who claims that weather manipulation was responsible for the event.

ORF meteorologist Marcus Wadsak elaborates a little more: "Such an amount of rain can NEVER be caused by cloud seeding," he confirmed on Platform X - it is simply not physically possible. He was unsympathetic to reports suggesting otherwise, saying they were "nonsense, fake, conspiracy or all three".

"It's certainly not cloud seeding," Ryan Maue, a private meteorologist and former senior scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also told the AP news agency. "If that happened with cloud seeding, there would be water all the time. You can't create rain from thin air and get six inches of water. It's like a perpetual motion machine."

Actual explanation: Only indirectly man-made
In fact, the evidence of human intervention is in the sand - although not entirely: the huge amounts of rain were already predicted in advance, so no cloud-seeding aircraft were needed. Rather, man-made climate change is responsible for such an extreme event.

"When we talk about heavy rainfall, we also have to talk about climate change. Focusing on cloud seeding is misleading," climate researcher Friederike Otto from Imperial College of London told the AP. "As the climate warms, rainfall around the world will become much heavier because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture."

Flooding in the desert state
In any case, the consequences of the storm are enormous. Generally speaking, it rarely rains in the desert state, but when it does, it is usually very heavy. Within 24 hours, however, the amount of rain that normally falls in two years has now fallen, making it the heaviest rainfall since records began, with the state agency WAM calling it a "historic weather event".

Schools, government institutions and businesses were urged to study and work from home, while the airport, a major global hub, advised people to travel "only if absolutely necessary". The Center for Meteorology called on people to avoid flooded areas.