Seeding lends helping hand for rain

Some welcome rain fell on the UAE over the weekend following the second cloud-seeding operation in two weeks by the National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology. The centre reported medium to heavy rainfall in eastern, north-eastern and south-eastern areas. After clouds gathered on Friday, two aircraft released 60 capsules containing sodium chloride, calcium chloride or silver iodide, around which water droplets can form and fall as rain.

Clouds regularly gather in mountainous areas, but do not always bring rain without "help" from the seeding operations. "We can't say we created the rain. The rain clouds are formed naturally; we just give it a little push to actually fall and replenish our water supply," said a spokesman for the meteorology centre. The centre said clouds first gathered around the Omani mountains and heavy rain fell amid thunder and lightning.

The storm extended to Masafi and Al Dhaid, then moved south towards Shouka and Felli and east to Awair and Hebab. There were also storms in Al Ain, Qabel, Wajin, and Al Arad. In Al Faqa, 2.2mm of water fell. Cloud-seeding the previous week led to more than 4mm of rain in Manama, topping up reservoirs and offering a respite from the heat in the southern areas of Hatta, Dhaid, Meleiha, Felli and Madam.

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