Dubai makes fake rain by ‘shocking’ clouds to tackle heatwave

Dubai has come up with its own way to create rainfall as it struggles with 50 degrees Celcius heatwave.

Dubai, the city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is using drone technology to “shock” clouds into producing rainfall.

The new technology is being trialled in an effort to fight the heatwave and increase the small average amount of rainfall of only four inches that they have per year.

The country is one of the hottest on Earth and is currently struggling with a heatwave that sees residents roast in temperatures that reach a blistering 50 degrees Celcius.

In a bid to try and grapple the heat, its National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) has started a trial using the drone technology, which sends electrical charges into the sky.

This method is known as cloud-seeding and prompts clouds to come together and form precipitation.

Amazing footage released by the NCM shows huge amounts of rain hitting cars as they drive along the motorways in scenes that look very strange for such an arid country.

Mere bhai weather ni thek UAE ka just now pic.twitter.com/Nbgr2ebXAH

— Lala Arbi (@lalaarbi92) January 12, 2020

The drones have proven to be very effective, causing yellow weather warnings to be issued in parts of the country where the drone technology has also been tested.

The rainfall fell so hard that there were concerns over whether the technology had been too effective as it had caused floods, The Mirror reports.

Prof Maarten Ambaum, University of Reading, has been working on the project, which is one of the nine rain-enhancing strategies being funded by the UAE since 2017.

“The water table is sinking drastically in [the] UAE and the purpose of this is to try to help with rainfall,” he told the BBC earlier this year.

He said the UAE has enough clouds for the technology, which works “like dry hair to a comb”, to work.

“When the drops merge and are big enough, they will fall as rain,” Professor Ambaum said.

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