‘Absolute carnage’ – Dubai airport and roads flooded as heaviest rain ever recorded in desert nation of UAE

‘Absolute carnage’ – Dubai airport and roads flooded as heaviest rain ever recorded in desert nation of UAE

Jon Gambrell

Heavy thunderstorms lashed the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, dumping the heaviest rain ever recorded in the country in the span of hours as it flooded out portions of major highways and Dubai's international airport.

The state-run WAM news agency called the rain “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.” That's before the discovery of crude oil in this energy-rich nation then part of a British protectorate known as the Trucial States.