The city of Dubai has suffered an unprecedented deluge this week, receiving over six inches of rain in only 24 hours. The torrential downpour led to widespread flooding. Aircraft at Dubai International Airport have been left wading through deep floodwaters, while vehicles have faced much the same on the city’s roads.
Nestled in the Arabian Desert, Dubai is the largest city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It usually receives just 3.12 inches of rain each year. That all changed this week, with the city receiving 6.26 inches of rain between 10 p.m. Monday and 10 p.m. Tuesday, local time. That’s over two years worth of rain in a single day.
With the city’s typical climate being hot and dry, neither infrastructure nor the locals are used to such conditions. The storm saw Dubai International Airport temporarily diverting flights, though departures continued to operate. Wild scenes saw planes taxiing through inches of standing water, kicking up huge spray with their jet exhaust.
My brother in the Middle East just sent me this. It’s Dubai Airport. Looks like it’s not just russia that’s suffering from flooding. pic.twitter.com/iG3cefV45U
— Fella McFellaface (@McFellaface) April 16, 2024
Dubai Airport enjoying a light shower ????✈️ pic.twitter.com/4g9pEf3RKg
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) April 16, 2024
Amazingly, despite the heavy downpour, operations were only fully suspended at the airport for 25 minutes. That’s not to say operations were easy, however. It wasn’t just vehicles wading their way around the tarmac, with cabin crews spotted trudging through knee-deep water on the airport grounds. This was naturally shared on Instagram, set to the tune of Rain On Me, a middling collaboration between Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga.
Similarly, many found it difficult to reach the airport with water inundating access roads. Indeed, much of the city’s road network was underwater as a result of the downpour. As reported by The Hindustan Times, stores, apartments, and metro stations were all flooded, with Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates both badly affected.
Due to the intense storm, operations at @DXB were temporarily suspended for 25 minutes, but have since recommenced.
There is major flooding on roads leading to the airport and forecasts indicate that the unsettled weather will continue till tomorrow morning.— DXB (@DXB) April 16, 2024
We are temporarily diverting arriving flights this evening until the weather conditions improve. Departures will continue to operate.
Together with our partners, we’re working to restore normal operations and minimise inconvenience to you.
Follow @DXB for further updates.
— DXB (@DXB) April 16, 2024
As seen on Twitter, the flooding did give one owner of a Porsche Taycan the opportunity to test their EVs mettle in the trying conditions. Amazingly, the Taycan was able to ford the deep waters with a surprising degree of success despite a bow wave flooding over the hood at one point. While the sports car was able to sail its way through over a foot of water, it’s more than likely that it sustained some damage in the process. While many EVs can make it through surprisingly deep water, they generally require careful inspection afterwards.
Will this Porsche Taycan make it? ????⚡️ pic.twitter.com/QMHjHDaTSC
— Tobi Mülhauser ???? (@TobiMuelhauser) April 16, 2024
Authorities in Dubai have not reported any fatalities as a result of the flooding. However, those in neighboring countries haven’t been so lucky. As storms lashed the Middle East, the neighboring nation of Oman saw 18 killed as a result of recent heavy rains.
Ultimately, it’s quite shocking to see planes wading through water on the runway, particularly with engines ingesting water. The latter isn’t something to seriously worry about, as jets are routinely tested to perform while great amounts of water are being sucked into the engine. The water also adds some drag to the aircraft on takeoff, but this can be overcome if the water isn’t too high. Indeed, Airbus tests its airliners in situations exactly like these.
Standing water can make it harder for crews to find their runway, however. This is more of a risk for landings than departures. This is likely why Dubai International Airport diverted arrivals while allowing departures to continue.
Dubai is set to see rain easing off now, with temperatures to hit the high 80s later this week. That should help dry the desert city in short order. Residents will appreciate the respite after the record-breaking rainfall earlier this week.
Image credits: Airbus via YouTube screenshot, McFellaFace and AviationBrk via Twitter screenshot
90% of UAE dads to their kids: “well, we needed the rain.”
DXB Seaport.
My plane from LHR to Dubai is delayed by 6 hours! Supposed to go at 4.50 pm, is currently in queue to get into the gate at 9.25 pm, my connection to Jakarta is definitely going to screw me again.
And i have to attend to a chemistry lab exam at the 19th! 🙁
Hope they got their sewage system sorted out
“Doodie!”
“Don’t Touch It!”
“Spaulding, NO!”
Sheesh. Somebody had to float that joke…
Capt. Sully fails to see the problem.
I would love to see a time lapse of all the water running off the tarmac and how quickly it soaks into the ground (or runs off to the sea).
When the F in FOD stands for Fish
Frogman
Flooded Taycan
Seaplane > Landplanes
Baloo and Kit Cloudkicker would agree.
Thank you. A reminder of after-school Tale Spin made me smile.
Ekranoplan > seaplane > landplane
https://www.autospeed.com/cms/a_111531/article
That Porsche driver: “I’ll take the boat less Taycan”
You. You go sit in the car and think about what you just said.
This precipitation event clearly demonstrates that climate change is complete bullshit and we should definitely not do a damn thing about it.
/s
I mean, yeah aircraft are certified to briefly act as boats, but at some point you’re crossing into “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” territory. Maybe they felt compelled to push forward with operations because of Dubai’s status as a major hub?
I suspect there was a certain amount of concern that it might get worse and a desire to get the planes out while they could.
It would be crazy to fly planes into that mess if they didn’t have to.
I guess we’ll be watching videos of Tavarish restoring a flood damaged Taycan later this year.
No, he needs to continually up the drama.
Restoring a flood damaged A320!
Why not both? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Boeing at it again
Taycan Driver:
Smashing through the boundaries
Lunacy has found me
Cannot stop the battery
Pounding out aggression
Turns into obsession
Cannot kill the battery
Well now I gotta go listen to the Pastor of Muppets album.
Liam Neeson stars in Taycan 4: This time it’s wet.
Wow, it looks like the Taycan is waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross floodwaters that aren’t too choppy.
I wonder if it has burned to the ground yet.
How dare they steal Tesla’s IP, Elon should sue
Bit of a shock (badumbump) that that Taycan was silver instead of a nice deep purple.
Fire in the sky…
Dum Dum Dum, Dumm de dumm
Slooow motion Walter, fire engine guy.