Heavy rain falls over Sharjah after cloud seeding

Successful cloud-seeding operations led to heavy rainfall over the east of Sharjah on Monday afternoon, but no further wet weather is forecast for this week.

The National Centre of Meteorology reported downpours over Siji in Fujairah and on the Al Dhaid-Falaj Al Mualla road in Umm Al Quwain.

Forecasters issues an amber weather warning for the area around Al Dhaid and east of Lahbab for Monday evening.

“Caution should be taken over the eastern areas where cumulonimbus activity is expected,” the centre said on Twitter.

“Heavy rains and strong winds associated with microbursts will reduce horizontal visibility and cause localised flooding in valley areas. Loose objects and weak structures including trees may become hazardous due to the strong winds.”

The summer rain is falling despite high temperatures in the Emirates, with a high of 50.2°C recorded on Monday in Al Shawamekh in Abu Dhabi at 3pm local time.

Cloud seeding is a technique regularly employed by the UAE to artificially encourage a cloud to produce rain.

Pilots fly planes into clouds that have an updraft — or rising current of air — and fire special flares loaded with salt crystals.

The updraft then sucks the salt crystals up into the cloud where they attract tiny particles of water that collide, becoming heavier and then falling as rain.