Monsoon-loving Indian expats chase rain in UAE desert

After Muhammed Sajjad moved from India to the United Arab Emirates a decade in the past, he missed his native Kerala’s monsoon season, so he launched into an unlikely quest: discovering rain within the desert.

Utilizing satellite tv for pc imagery, climate information and different high-tech instruments, the novice meteorologist tracks potential rainfall spots throughout the desert nation and, together with different Indians nostalgic for the monsoon season, chases the clouds looking for rain.

“Once I got here to UAE in 2015, in August, it… was peak monsoon time” in Kerala, the 35-year-old property agent advised AFP, including that he had struggled to regulate to the change of local weather.

“So I began to go looking in regards to the wet situation in UAE and I got here to know that there’s rain taking place in UAE throughout peak summer season,” he stated, including: “I began to discover the likelihood to chase the rain, benefit from the rain.”

Every week, he forecasts when and the place rain would possibly fall and posts a steered rendezvous to the 130,000 followers of his “UAE Weatherman” web page on Instagram.

He recurrently posts footage of his rain expeditions out into the desert, hoping to deliver collectively “all rain lovers who miss rain”.

Final weekend, he headed out into the desert from Sharjah on the head of a convoy of about 100 automobiles.

However nothing is definite. The rain “could occur, it could not occur,” Sajjad stated. However when it does, “it’s a tremendous second”.

‘Nostalgic’

After driving within the desert for hours, the group arrived on the designated spot simply as a downpour began.

The rain lovers leapt out of their automobiles, their faces beaming because the rain droplets streamed down their cheeks in a uncommon reminder of residence.

“They really feel nostalgic,” Sajjad stated proudly.

Most UAE residents are foreigners, amongst them some 3.5 million Indians who make up the Gulf nation’s largest expatriate group.

Regardless of using superior cloud-seeding know-how, the UAE has a median yearly rainfall of simply 50 to 100 millilitres.

Most of it falls throughout quick however intense winter storms.

“Whereas long-term averages stay low, the frequency and depth of maximum climate occasions has been rising and is because of world warming,” stated Diana Francis, a local weather scientist who teaches at Khalifa College in Abu Dhabi.

In the summertime, the nation typically will get lower than 5 millilitres of rain, she stated, normally falling away from the coastal areas the place many of the inhabitants lives.

So rain-seekers should drive deep into the desert inside to have an opportunity of success.

An Indian expatriate, who gave her identify solely as Anagha and was on her first expedition into the desert final weekend, stated she was “excited to see the rain”.

“All of my household and buddies are having fun with good rain and good local weather and we live right here within the sizzling solar,” she stated.

The UAE endured its hottest April on report this yr.

In contrast, April final yr noticed the UAE’s heaviest rains in 75 years, which noticed 259.5 mm of rainfall in a single day.

4 folks died and the industrial hub of Dubai was paralysed for a number of days. Scientists of the World Climate Attribution community stated the extreme rains have been “probably” exacerbated by world warming.

“We could not get pleasure from it as a result of it was flooded throughout UAE,” Anagha stated. “This time we’re going to see… rain coming to us within the desert.”