DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (NEWSnet/AP) — The desert nation of the United Arab Emirates experienced a year’s worth of rain within 24 hours, with floods disrupting travel at Dubai International Airport.

The state-run WAM news agency called the rain Tuesday “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.”

Rain also fell in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. However, the rains were particularly acute across the UAE.

One reason may have been “cloud seeding,” in which small planes operated by the government fly through clouds burning special salt flares. Those flares can increase precipitation. Several reports quoted meteorologists at the National Center for Meteorology as saying they flew six or seven cloud-seeding flights before the rains. Flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed one aircraft affiliated with the UAE’s cloud-seeding efforts flew around the country Monday.

The National, an English-language, state-linked newspaper in Abu Dhabi, quoted an anonymous official at the center on Wednesday as saying no cloud seeding took place on Tuesday, without acknowledging any earlier flights.

The UAE conducts cloud seeding to help increase its limited groundwater supply.

The rains began late Monday, soaking the sands and roadways of Dubai with 0.79 inch of rain, according to meteorological data collected at Dubai International Airport. The storms intensified around 9 a.m. local Tuesday and continued throughout the day, dumping more rain and hail onto the overwhelmed city.

By the end of Tuesday, more than 5.59 inches of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours. An average year sees 3.73 inches of rain at Dubai International Airport, a hub for the long-haul carrier Emirates. And Khatm al-Shakla, an area near Al Ain in Abu Dhabi, saw 10 inches of rain Tuesday, the most anywhere in the country, officials said.

Dubai International Airport acknowledged Wednesday morning that the flooding had left “limited transportation options” and affected flights as aircraft crews couldn’t reach the airfield.

Emirates said the airline had halted check-in for passengers departing from Dubai itself from 8 a.m. until midnight Wednesday as it tried to clear the airport of transit passengers — many of whom had been sleeping where they could in its cavernous terminals.

Paul Griffiths, the airport’s CEO, acknowledged continued issues with flooding Wednesday morning, saying every place an aircraft could be safely parked was taken. Some aircraft had been diverted to Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, the city-state’s second airfield.

“It remains an incredibly challenging time. In living memory, I don’t think anyone has ever seen conditions like it,” Griffiths told the state-owned talk radio station Dubai Eye.

Egypt’s national carrier, EgyptAir, also temporarily suspended flights between Cairo and Dubai due to the bad weather.

Schools across the UAE largely were closed of the storm and government employees were mostly working remotely if able. Many workers stayed home as well, though some ventured out, with the unfortunate stalling out their vehicles in deeper-than-expected water covering some roads. The high water included parts of the Sheikh Zayed Road, a 12-lane highway through downtown Dubai.

Authorities sent tanker trucks out into the streets and highways to pump away the water. Water poured into some homes, forcing people to bail out their houses.

Meanwhile in neighboring Oman, a sultanate that rests on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, at least 19 people were killed in heavy rains in recent days, according to a statement Wednesday from the country’s National Committee for Emergency Management. That includes about 10 schoolchildren who were swept away in a vehicle with an adult.

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