Flood warning issued as UAE braces for a week of rain

The National Centre of Meteorology said northern and eastern parts of the country will probably be worst affected

Dark clouds over the ICC academy in Dubai Sports City. Pawan Singh/ The National

Forecasters have warned of possible flash flooding as the UAE faces five straight days of rain.

The National Centre of Meteorology said showers of different intensities will affect the entire country over the coming days, up to and including Thursday.

The rain could affect all areas of the country over the period, although showers will mostly be confined to coastal and eastern areas.

"There could be some flash floods in the north of the country on Tuesday, not in Abu Dhabi," said a forecaster for the centre.

"The UAE is being affected by an upper atmospheric trough of low pressure, that’s why we’re getting rain in this period," she said.

NCM posted a video of light rain falling on Abu Dhabi’s Corniche on Sunday.

Light to moderate rain had also fallen over the Al Dhafra area, according to another tweet by the centre, which included the hashtag #Cloud_Seeding in its post.

The UAE frequently performs cloud seeding missions to enhance rainfall over the country. It involves fitting planes with special flares which are fired into convective, or warm, clouds that have an updraft — or rising current of air.

The updraft then sucks up the salt crystals into the cloud, and they attract tiny particles of water that collide, becoming heavier and then falling as rain.

Weather charts on the centre’s website showed a large area of rain cloud stretching from Abu Dhabi city up to near Umm Al Quwain.

Thundery showers are forecast in the early evening, lasting into Monday and possibly continuing well into the next week, its says.

Peak temperatures are also expected to reach 28°C, with lighter winds of up to 16kph.

Conditions in the Arabian Gulf will be moderate to rough.