Banjir Teluk Persia 2024

Templat:Infobox weather eventTemplat:Infobox weather event/HistoryTemplat:Infobox weather event/EffectsTemplat:Infobox weather event/Footer In April 2024, heavy rain battered some Persian Gulf states, causing flash flooding across the region. Several states recorded nearly a year's worth of rain in a day. The floods had a significant impact across the region, with Oman and the United Arab Emirates being particularly affected, killing at least 24 people, 19 of whom were in Oman. Southeastern Iran, Yemen, as well as the Gulf states of Bahrain, Qatar, and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, also experienced heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding.

Background

The Persian Gulf Region is known for hot and dry weather, though heavy rains causing flooding have also occurred with greater regularity in recent years. Due to the arid desert climate and high temperatures, cloud seeding has been used in the United Arab Emirates in order to combat water scarcity. Artificial rain making has been criticised for the environmental impact of using harmful seeding agents, but in the UAE natural salts are used as seeding agents instead of harmful chemicals like silver iodide. With the UAE being one of the hottest and driest regions on earth, the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science has been investing in novel solutions to deal with expected water shortages in the country. Other commentators have linked the unusual weather to climate change. Experts have said that cloud seeding would only have a minimal effect and that the focus on cloud seeding is “misleading”. The region had previously hit by heat waves and cyclones in recent years, and with rising temperatures and humidity levels, researchers expect an increase in the risk of flooding in the Gulf.

In the aftermath of the floods, some news outlets such as Bloomberg linked the heavy downpours to the UAE's cloud seeding program. Scientists from the University of Reading denied that cloud seeding was to blame for the heavy rainfall, given that the large-scale weather pattern was predicted in advance, and was too large to be influenced by cloud seeding. They added that the effects of cloud seeding are typically short-lived, lasting for a few hours. Meteorologists from the University of Reading also stated the heavy rain was caused by large thunderstorms. Omar Al Yazeedi, the deputy director general of the UAE’s National Centre of Meteorology (NCM), said the institution “did not conduct any seeding operations during this event”. Other news commentators have also dismissed the link to cloud seeding, stating that the technology marginally increases rainfall, and that the UAE's cloud seeding program is localised to the eastern part of the country, away from densely populated metropolitan areas.