Scientists pour cold water on speculation cloud seeding to blame for Dubai deluge

Experts are casting doubt on speculation that cloud seeding could have caused a historic downpour in the United Arab Emirates that left parts of Dubai underwater.

Several reports have quoted meteorologists at the National Center for Meteorology as saying they flew six or seven cloud-seeding flights — small planes flown through clouds to disperse chemicals aimed at getting rain to fall — before the deluge.

But experts say the storm systems that produced the rain were forecast well in advance and that cloud seeding would not have caused such flooding

Flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed one aircraft affiliated with the UAE’s cloud-seeding efforts flew around the country Monday.

The National, an English-language, state-linked newspaper in Abu Dhabi, quotes an anonymous official at the center as saying no cloud seeding took place on Tuesday, without acknowledging any earlier flights.

The center does not respond to questions from the AP.

The UAE, which heavily relies on energy-hungry desalination plants to provide water, conducts cloud seeding in part to increase its dwindling, limited groundwater.

Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections, says the flooding in Dubai was caused by an unusually strong low-pressure system that drove many rounds of heavy thunderstorms.

“You don’t need cloud seeding’s influence to account for the record deluge in Dubai,” Masters says.

Scientists also say climate change in general is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme storms, droughts, floods and wildfires around the world.