The UAE has been leading the effort to seed clouds and increase precipitation, which remains at less than 100 millimetres (3.9 inches) a year on average. The country is located in one of the hottest and driest regions on earth.
A twin-turboprop aircraft takes off under the hot desert sun with a huge number of salt canisters under its wings. As the plane is taking off, United Arab Emirates meteorological official Abullah al-Hammadi is assessing weather maps on his computer screen. The official is looking for cloud formations.
At 9,000 feet above the sea level, the aircraft fires salt flares into the most promising white clouds, hoping to start rainfall.
“Cloud seeding requires the existence of rainy clouds, and this is a problem as it is not always the case,” said Hamadi, head of rain enhancement operations in the UAE’s National Centre for Meteorology, to news agency Reuters
Nature’s backlash due to climate change, plus a growing population and economy diversifying into tourism and other areas has increased the demand for water in UAE. The country has historically relied on expensive desalination plants for its water supply.
“Cloud seeding increases rainfall rates by approximately 10% to 30% per year… According to our calculations, cloud seeding operations cost much less than the desalination process,” Hammadi said.
Facing droughts, Saudi Arabia and Iran have announced similar plans to seed clouds.
Edward Graham, a meteorologist at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Britain, insists that salt used in cloud seeding by the UAE does not damage the environment.
“In terms of carbon footprint, planes that fly up into the clouds are just small planes, when compared to the billions of cars on the planet and the huge planes doing international air travel everyday, it’s just a drop in the ocean,” he added.
