More than 140 millimetres of rainfall soaked the city-state in 24 hours – more than the typical average of 94.7mm for a year in the desert nation. Parts of Al-Ain, a region 120 kilometres south of Dubai, received more than 250 millimetres.
Police and emergency personnel drove slowly through the flooded streets, their emergency lights flashing across the darkened morning. Lightning flashed across the sky, occasionally touching the tip of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
The city’s driverless Metro experienced disruptions and flooded stations as well.
Schools across the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, largely shut ahead of the storm and government employees were largely working remotely if able.
Authorities sent tanker trucks out into the streets and highways to pump away the water.
Water poured into some homes, forcing people to bail out their houses.
Rain is unusual in the UAE, an arid, Arabian Peninsula nation, but occurs periodically during the cooler winter months. Many roads and other areas lack drainage given the lack of regular rainfall, causing flooding.
Rain also fell in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
In neighbouring Oman, a sultanate that rests on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, at least 18 people have been killed in heavy rains in recent days, according to a statement from the country’s National Committee for Emergency Management.
That includes some 10 schoolchildren swept away in a vehicle with an adult, which saw condolences come into the country from rulers across the region.
Vehicles drive through heavy rain on the Sheikh Zayed Road highway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.Credit: AP
The UAE state news agency WAM reported that air carrier Flydubai said it temporally suspended all of its flights departing from Dubai until Wednesday morning due to the weather.
“All flydubai flights scheduled for departure from Dubai this evening (16 April) have been cancelled effective immediately until 10am (Dubai time) on 17 April. During this period, passengers who do not have Dubai as their final destination will not be accepted for travel,” a flyDubai spokesperson was quoted as saying.