Dubai creates rain to tackle 50°C heat

By Nneka Nwogwugwu

Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is making plans to create its own rain using drones that fly into clouds and unleash electrical charges.

This it said will reduce 50 degrees Celsius temperatures.

The charges give clouds electrics to ‘cajole them’ into clumping together and producing rain.

The UAE hopes the technique could help to increase its meagre annual rainfall.

The technology is led by experts at the University of Reading in the UK who found out that the precipitation has been enhanced by a technique known as cloud seeding, and its purpose is to increase condensation in the hope that it might trigger a downpour.

The UAE’s cloud seeding operations are part of an ongoing $15 million (£10.8m) mission to generate rain in the country.

The country ranks among the world’s top 10 driest with an average rainfall of just three inches.

Professor Maarten Ambaum, who worked on the special project, had said the UAE had enough clouds to create conditions which allow for rainfall.

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

In 2017, the UAE government provided $15m for nine different rain-enhancement projects.

Among them is another cloud-seeding technology that launches salt missiles into clouds from planes.

Other instances where the technology was applied were ski resorts in Colorado, USA, where it was use to induce heavier snowfall.

The former USSR also apparently used cloud seeding to prevent radioactive fallout from Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 from reaching Moscow.

Also, ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, it was used to create a downpour elsewhere and keep the stadium dry.

The UAE is also looking into methods to preserve the rain that does hit the ground, instead of allowing it to quickly evaporate or flow off into the sea.

It has built dams and reservoirs to gather water that flood desert valleys.