Floods · Arabian Peninsula
A year and a half of rain in a day
Dubai normally sees less than 100 mm of rain in a whole year, most of it in winter. On 16 April 2024 a line of storms crossed the Emirates, and ERA5 puts more than 100 mm on the city in a single day. A gauge at Khatm Al Shakla, near Al Ain, measured 254.8 mm in 24 hours, the most in the UAE since records began in 1949. [S2] Roads became rivers and Dubai's airport cancelled hundreds of flights; in Oman, where the storms began on 14 April, flash floods swept through the wadis. At least 20 people died in Oman and 4 in the UAE. [S1]
14–17 April 2024 · United Arab Emirates and northern Oman · ERA5
111mm
ERA5 at Dubai, 16 April
Against a normal year's 79 mm in ERA5.
10–40%
Heavier with climate change
For such rain in this region, though the data allow no firm conclusion; El Niño also played a part.S1
What happened
Storms first hit northern Oman on 14 April, with flash floods in the wadis below the Hajar mountains. On 15 and 16 April they spread over the Emirates. Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, built for a desert where rain is rare, have few storm drains; within hours motorways were under water, cars were abandoned, and flights at Dubai airport were cancelled or diverted. The water took days to drain away.S1S2
World Weather Attribution found that heavy rain like this, in this region, has become 10–40 % heavier as the climate has warmed, and that El Niño years favour it. The data are too few for a firm figure, but the direction matches what a warmer atmosphere, holding more water, would produce.S1
14 Apr
Storms and flash floods in northern Oman; the first deaths.S1
15 Apr
Thunderstorms build over the mountains of Oman and spread towards the Emirates.
16 Apr
A day of storms across the UAE: 254.8 mm at Khatm Al Shakla; Dubai floods.S2
17 Apr
The rain ends; the water stays in streets and homes for days.
Why it rained so much
Three things met. Aloft, a slow-moving low at 500 hPa, with its spin (vorticity) over Saudi Arabia, lifted the air ahead of it over eastern Arabia. Near the ground, a stream of moist air from the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman fed the region: on 15 April ERA5's map shows a band of water vapour over the Emirates as large as over the tropical ocean. And the air was unstable: the sun of a long April day over the mountains of Oman built up energy for storms (CAPE) of more than 3,000 J kg⁻¹.
Dubai
111mm
ERA5's rain at Dubai on 16 April 2024, about 1.4 times its normal rain in a whole year. The gauges measured more in places: ERA5 puts 42 mm near Khatm Al Shakla, where 254.8 mm fell.
| Day | Rain |
|---|---|
| Apr 15 | 11.4 |
| Apr 16 | 111.3 |
| Apr 17 | 4.2 |
| April normal | 4.0 |
| Normal year | 79.0 |
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References
News
Studies and guidelines
- S1World Weather Attribution (2024). Heavy precipitation hitting vulnerable communities in the UAE and Oman becoming an increasing threat as the climate warms. 25 April 2024.The deaths, and how climate change and El Niño influenced the rain.
- S2Hussein, K., et al. (2025). Unprecedented rainfall in the United Arab Emirates: hydrologic and flood impact analysis of the April 2024 event. Natural Hazards, 121.The record rainfall and the floods it caused in the UAE.