DUBAI // The rain that has battered the country for the past four days will ease from Sunday.
There will be isolated and scattered showers across coastal areas, particularly on Sunday morning, but the rainfall will not be as heavy, said a forecaster at the National Centre for Metereology and Seismology.
“The unstable weather we have been seeing will start to dissipate on Sunday, although there will be a chance for slight to moderate rain,” the forecaster said.
“For the next few days, the weather will remain partly cloudy. There is the chance for a few drops here and there but nothing significant.”
The highest rainfall was at Delma Island, which saw 194.8 millimetres of rain between Wednesday evening and Friday night. Most of the rain fell in the first 24 hours.
Abu Dhabi’s airport recorded about 44.8mm of rain for that period.
There are already signs that the rain is starting to ease. From midnight on Friday until noon on Saturday, the most rainfall was 2mm, to the north of Dubai.
To maximise rainfall, six planes owned by the weather centre have been carrying out round-the-clock cloud-seeding operations since 4pm on Wednesday.
“We have covered almost every part of the UAE, except places where there are dangerous clouds,” said the forecaster.
Delma Island in particular had clouds, with an updraft that was dangerous for small aircraft.
The forecaster said the seeding operations had been successful, but it was not possible to determine whether the rain was caused, or exacerbated, by the seeding due to a lack of scientific verification.
mcroucher@thenational.ae
