I have been chewing over the thought that certain news stories tend to blow all others out of existence, and have watched that unfold in both my homeland and my adopted homeland of recent. It was the same story that was knocked firmly into second place. Events dear boy, events, were unfolding in Iran and Iraq, including the desperate tragedy of the shot down Ukrainian passenger jet. Then, in the UK, a certain Duke and Duchess of Sussex, aka Harry and Meghan, announced that they had had quite enough of paying for their unimaginable privilege by being pilloried in the press, thank you very much. Meanwhile, in the UAE, it started raining. And I don't need to tell you that rain in the desert is BIG NEWS. It was royalty in the UK and rain in the UAE that kicked Iran off the top spot of the news pages, and suddenly, we were all less worried that World War Three was about to break out because the ever changing cycle of news had simply moved on, as it does.
When I started writing this a week and a half or so ago, had rained in Dubai for three days, which is actually a pretty standard stint of rain for the UAE winter but you would not think so from the way people carry on about it. This is a synergy between my two homelands - both have an obsession with the weather. In Blighty we long for the sunshine, although climate change has meant that we have a fair few more fine days than we used to, whereas in the UAE, it is rain that we crave. Our relationship with it is complicated. We are in a desert after all, and even deserts need rain, and when we do not get rain, we are encouraged to pray for it. The complication is in the somewhat vexed issue of cloud seeding, a practice that began in the UAE in around 2010.
The UAE is not new to trying to defy its difficult climate, which is pleasant and mild, sometimes on the warm side in winter, but face meltingly hot in the summer. We are prone to sandstorms, but we don't suffer the onslaught of typhoons as frequently as our southern neighbour, Oman, thank goodness. Over Christmas, I was particularly struck by this story about a forgotten project to create a forest in the Abu Dhabi desert, lowering the temperature by planting thousands and thousands of trees. It was eventually abandoned with the realisation of the uneconomically massive quantity of water needed to keep such a forest alive.
That was in the 1970s. Now in 2020, we have cloud seeding, or making it rain, as a way of attempting to top up precious water supplies, clean the dusty air, and lower the temperature by that all important degree or two. Cloud seeding is not actually new as a concept. Do you remember, because I do, that Paul McCartney was supposed to have employed a company to use the practice to stop it raining for a concert in Russia way back in 2004? That Guardian article that I have linked, if you can't be bothered to read, suggests that the concept of seeding clouds dates as far back as the 1940s. Indeed, as with many things that are a little "out there", Dubai is taking things further with its Heart of Europe scheme at its notorious World Islands project, featuring temperature controlled snow-lined streets which are scheduled (scheduled, I say) to be finished this year.
So, far, so typically Dubai. But what happens when it rains in the UAE?
It affects a favourite national pastime: driving. Rain means that a lot of people are too frightened to drive. DB1's class Whatsapp group is habitually alive with message after message from parents desperately trying to second guess whether school will close or not, because of the "danger" of driving or otherwise transporting your precious offspring to their place of education in the rain. To be fair, when you are on the roads of a country where driving standards tend to be poor and there is sometimes inadequate drainage to cope with a heavy downpour, it can be a hair-raising experience, but nothing a Brit who has driven on a moderately wet motorway in the UK in February can't handle.
It is quite common, in both rainy and foggy conditions in the UAE, to see people driving at around 40kmph in the fast lane of a six lane motorway (speed limit between 120 and 140kmph) with their hazards on, because they think this is a sensible way to handle the conditions, never mind the fact that they have ironically turned themselves into a slow-moving hazard for anyone who is more used to rainy conditions and is driving at normal speed. There are other motorists that pay no heed to the rain at all, and continue their usual policy of tailgating everyone on the road in their enormous four-wheel drives, with little care of the fact that their stopping distances are longer in wet conditions. Schools do close during the rain, although many try to avoid doing so, and then usually only if the education authority tells them to or if there's building damage or flooding.
Which brings us to flooding, which yes, does happen in the UAE. Leaking windows, doors and roofs happen every time there is significant rain and for those living on ground level in villas, they often experience rooms full of water. Buildings, unsurprisingly enough, are not built for rain. It is frustrating, because while rain is infrequent, it does happen, but rather than seal buildings properly, it seems to be considered fair dues for the occupants to lose a few of their possessions or suffer heavy flood damage in more severe cases.
The roads flood too. So that's roads and buildings, and both these flooding scenarios are of course down to drainage, which, tied up with discussions about cloud seeding, become a matter of some fierce debate during any period of precipitation in the UAE.
That debate goes a little something like this: As soon as it rains in the UAE, a good number of us find ourselves paddling around wrecking our designer sandals and shivering in the unaccustomed chill, and then looking to the heavens and grumbling about cloud seeding. It's common to roll your eyes and say "cloud seeding again!" and then mutter about how, if they're going to cloud seed, they should also invest in adequate infrastructure, such as buildings that withstand rain, and drainage that can manage large amounts of water at one time.
This argument is all well and good, but, it of course forgets that although rain is infrequent, it does indeed happen in the UAE, and just because it is raining, it does not necessarily mean that that is down to cloud seeding. In fact, the Government has gone as far as to issue a denial that the most recent rain, the heaviest in the UAE for 24 years, had anything to do with cloud seeding.
OK, so it's not cloud seeding? Got that? Good.
So why are we not better prepared for it? Well, it appears, as is the case with many things here in the UAE, that it is up to the individual. Take as an example of this the fact that two of the rooms in my own flat filled with water during the rains this time. Two of our balcony doors leak during heavy rain, and if I am around when that happens, I usually run around putting towels down to soak up the water, as it seeps through, and no harm done and I forget about it, as rain is infrequent after all, then once the weather dries up, summon the maintenance company (again) to wave sealant guns at the doors and do things like glue down bits of material such as marble or wood to try to prevent the deluge leaking into the flat. Then it rains again a while later, the same thing happens, and we repeat the exercise all over again. Well, it keeps me busy, and it keeps the maintenance man in a job, eh?
This time, the rain started during the night, around 2am I reckon, and although DB2 was up on and off for most of it, perhaps sensing the added moisture in the air, we did not notice until DB1 got up, as is her habit for a weekend, at around 6am, and paddled through from her room to tell us that not all was as it should be. So a fun day was had by all, DB1 got to wear her wellies, I got to attempt to help with the clear up while holding a confused and clingy DB2, and we got rid of some things that got wet that we had meant to get rid of anyway. I know what you are thinking: "The building is inadequate, there is nowhere for the water to go, that's what happened." That, dear reader, is where you would be technically wrong. There are drains, but the drains were full of sand, meaning the water could not drain, because, sleep deprived as we are thanks to DB2's vampire like attitude to rest, we had not twigged that we need to uncover drains and make sure they are unclogged when heavy rain is forecast.
So, a few soggy carpets, soft furnishings and playmats later, we have learned our lesson - when rain is forecast, uncover the balcony drains and make sure you check them for sand.
We learned the same lesson when we went away on holiday in 2013 pre-kids when we were living in a different apartment, and forgot to check all the indoor floor drains which are in the kitchen and bathroom in most apartments in Dubai.
The covers were on, in one case stuck down because we had never used it, and we had a plumbing malfunction while were away, and the first we knew of the fact that our flat was full of water was when the maintenance company called us to let us know that our downstairs neighbours had complained about it pouring through their ceiling.
So there you go, what you need is a trial and error approach. You need to know to remove drain covers in your kitchen and bathroom before you go on holiday while living in the UAE, but you only find that out once your apartment has filled with water. Ditto balconies, you only know about the need to unblock drains once your balcony and thus home has filled with water.
I saw an argument about this on a Dubai-based Facebook group recently that was so typical of the opposing sides one sees here. One poster complained that they shouldn't cloud seed (it isn't cloud seeding, got that?!) if they have inadequate drainage in place to handle the rain and what drainage there is is badly designed. Their opponent said we do have drainage, it just fills with sand, so the first time it rains there is flooding before the water forces the sand through the drain. It happens every year, she said.
Far be it from me to question the wisdom of the long-term expats that post on these forums, to point out that a problem that "happens every year" is the very epitome of bad design, ie something not fit for purpose. I would never do that.
The final thing that happens in the UAE during rain is that news cycles and social media are absolutely full of it. The same viral pictures of submerged cars, people kayaking around swish housing developments in flood water, get pulled out, and endlessly repeated, as well as some new ones from the most recent deluge. Some entrepreneurial types make a little extra cash ferrying those who do not have waterproof shoes through underpasses and car parks and the like, using shopping trolleys, which is the kind of charming, feelgood story that one needs in 2020 isn't it? And people like me, having resisted posting pictures of rain for the first years of their stay in the UAE, because it is such a cliche, can resist it no longer, and do the same.
As I keep saying, rain, it is so infrequent in the UAE, and the longer I am here, the more I appreciate the excitement of it when it happens, and the cool, clean air that usually comes after it. I suppose after nearly a decade in Dubai it is expected that I should pick up a few local habits, and be as excited by the rain as any Khaleeji.
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| A storm brewing |
When I started writing this a week and a half or so ago, had rained in Dubai for three days, which is actually a pretty standard stint of rain for the UAE winter but you would not think so from the way people carry on about it. This is a synergy between my two homelands - both have an obsession with the weather. In Blighty we long for the sunshine, although climate change has meant that we have a fair few more fine days than we used to, whereas in the UAE, it is rain that we crave. Our relationship with it is complicated. We are in a desert after all, and even deserts need rain, and when we do not get rain, we are encouraged to pray for it. The complication is in the somewhat vexed issue of cloud seeding, a practice that began in the UAE in around 2010.
The UAE is not new to trying to defy its difficult climate, which is pleasant and mild, sometimes on the warm side in winter, but face meltingly hot in the summer. We are prone to sandstorms, but we don't suffer the onslaught of typhoons as frequently as our southern neighbour, Oman, thank goodness. Over Christmas, I was particularly struck by this story about a forgotten project to create a forest in the Abu Dhabi desert, lowering the temperature by planting thousands and thousands of trees. It was eventually abandoned with the realisation of the uneconomically massive quantity of water needed to keep such a forest alive.
That was in the 1970s. Now in 2020, we have cloud seeding, or making it rain, as a way of attempting to top up precious water supplies, clean the dusty air, and lower the temperature by that all important degree or two. Cloud seeding is not actually new as a concept. Do you remember, because I do, that Paul McCartney was supposed to have employed a company to use the practice to stop it raining for a concert in Russia way back in 2004? That Guardian article that I have linked, if you can't be bothered to read, suggests that the concept of seeding clouds dates as far back as the 1940s. Indeed, as with many things that are a little "out there", Dubai is taking things further with its Heart of Europe scheme at its notorious World Islands project, featuring temperature controlled snow-lined streets which are scheduled (scheduled, I say) to be finished this year.
So, far, so typically Dubai. But what happens when it rains in the UAE?
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| Cracks start to appear after the rain |
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| The flooding outside my house was admittedly worse than the average British motorway during a moderately wet February. |
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| This is when the four-wheel drive really comes into its own. |
Which brings us to flooding, which yes, does happen in the UAE. Leaking windows, doors and roofs happen every time there is significant rain and for those living on ground level in villas, they often experience rooms full of water. Buildings, unsurprisingly enough, are not built for rain. It is frustrating, because while rain is infrequent, it does happen, but rather than seal buildings properly, it seems to be considered fair dues for the occupants to lose a few of their possessions or suffer heavy flood damage in more severe cases.
The roads flood too. So that's roads and buildings, and both these flooding scenarios are of course down to drainage, which, tied up with discussions about cloud seeding, become a matter of some fierce debate during any period of precipitation in the UAE.
 |
| Waking up to an attractive new water feature during the most recent deluge. |
This argument is all well and good, but, it of course forgets that although rain is infrequent, it does indeed happen in the UAE, and just because it is raining, it does not necessarily mean that that is down to cloud seeding. In fact, the Government has gone as far as to issue a denial that the most recent rain, the heaviest in the UAE for 24 years, had anything to do with cloud seeding.
OK, so it's not cloud seeding? Got that? Good.
So why are we not better prepared for it? Well, it appears, as is the case with many things here in the UAE, that it is up to the individual. Take as an example of this the fact that two of the rooms in my own flat filled with water during the rains this time. Two of our balcony doors leak during heavy rain, and if I am around when that happens, I usually run around putting towels down to soak up the water, as it seeps through, and no harm done and I forget about it, as rain is infrequent after all, then once the weather dries up, summon the maintenance company (again) to wave sealant guns at the doors and do things like glue down bits of material such as marble or wood to try to prevent the deluge leaking into the flat. Then it rains again a while later, the same thing happens, and we repeat the exercise all over again. Well, it keeps me busy, and it keeps the maintenance man in a job, eh?
 |
| We will rebuild. The remote control minion didn't seem to mind getting his wheels wet. |
So, a few soggy carpets, soft furnishings and playmats later, we have learned our lesson - when rain is forecast, uncover the balcony drains and make sure you check them for sand.
We learned the same lesson when we went away on holiday in 2013 pre-kids when we were living in a different apartment, and forgot to check all the indoor floor drains which are in the kitchen and bathroom in most apartments in Dubai.
The covers were on, in one case stuck down because we had never used it, and we had a plumbing malfunction while were away, and the first we knew of the fact that our flat was full of water was when the maintenance company called us to let us know that our downstairs neighbours had complained about it pouring through their ceiling.
So there you go, what you need is a trial and error approach. You need to know to remove drain covers in your kitchen and bathroom before you go on holiday while living in the UAE, but you only find that out once your apartment has filled with water. Ditto balconies, you only know about the need to unblock drains once your balcony and thus home has filled with water.
I saw an argument about this on a Dubai-based Facebook group recently that was so typical of the opposing sides one sees here. One poster complained that they shouldn't cloud seed (it isn't cloud seeding, got that?!) if they have inadequate drainage in place to handle the rain and what drainage there is is badly designed. Their opponent said we do have drainage, it just fills with sand, so the first time it rains there is flooding before the water forces the sand through the drain. It happens every year, she said.
Far be it from me to question the wisdom of the long-term expats that post on these forums, to point out that a problem that "happens every year" is the very epitome of bad design, ie something not fit for purpose. I would never do that.
The final thing that happens in the UAE during rain is that news cycles and social media are absolutely full of it. The same viral pictures of submerged cars, people kayaking around swish housing developments in flood water, get pulled out, and endlessly repeated, as well as some new ones from the most recent deluge. Some entrepreneurial types make a little extra cash ferrying those who do not have waterproof shoes through underpasses and car parks and the like, using shopping trolleys, which is the kind of charming, feelgood story that one needs in 2020 isn't it? And people like me, having resisted posting pictures of rain for the first years of their stay in the UAE, because it is such a cliche, can resist it no longer, and do the same.
As I keep saying, rain, it is so infrequent in the UAE, and the longer I am here, the more I appreciate the excitement of it when it happens, and the cool, clean air that usually comes after it. I suppose after nearly a decade in Dubai it is expected that I should pick up a few local habits, and be as excited by the rain as any Khaleeji.
