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No, Dubai’s Floods Weren’t Caused by Cloud Seeding


Heavy rain has triggered flash flooding in Dubai. But those pointing the finger at cloud seeding are misguided.

(In fact, as we were preparing this story for publication on Wednesday morning, the UAE’s National Center for Meteorology told CNBC it had not seeded any clouds before the storm struck on Tuesday.) It’s exciting to point the finger at a scary technology, but the real cause of the flooding is likely more banal: Dubai is comically ill-equipped to deal with rainfall. The city has expanded rapidly over the last few decades, with little attention paid in the past to infrastructure like storm drains that could help it deal with a sudden influx of water.

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