Reported By Mary Udezue | Edited by: Gabriel Osa
The United Arab Emirates has been hit by a rare and severe storm that has paralyzed major parts of the country, inundated streets with floodwaters and disrupted travel and daily life, authorities and eyewitnesses said on Friday, 19 December 2025. The unprecedented weather event brought heavy rain, thunderstorms and lightning to the desert nation — a landscape unaccustomed to such intense precipitation — leaving urban hubs like Dubai, Sharjah and other emirates grappling with widespread flooding, grounded flights and stalled traffic.
The National Centre of Meteorology and local authorities had issued warnings ahead of the storm, forecasting heavy rainfall from late Thursday into Friday that would affect several emirates. By morning, rain-soaked roads in Dubai and Sharjah were waterlogged, traffic was severely disrupted, and commuters struggled to move across normally dry boulevards turned into rivers of flowing water. Emergency teams were deployed across the country to assist motorists and clear waterlogged streets, while police and transport officials urged residents to stay indoors unless travel was absolutely necessary.
The downpour also wreaked havoc on air travel. Dubai International Airport (DXB) — one of the busiest aviation hubs in the world — and Sharjah Airport experienced a series of flight cancellations and delays, forcing airlines including Emirates and flydubai to adjust schedules, suspend departures and divert incoming flights amid hazardous conditions. At least a dozen Emirates flights were cancelled on Friday, with numerous others delayed as runways and access routes remained affected by standing water and poor visibility.
Across the emirates, residents captured scenes of unprecedented flooding: sidewalks submerged, vehicles stalled in water, and communities cut off by swollen drains and blocked roads. In some low-lying areas of Sharjah, residents were seen wading through floodwaters that reached up to knee height, a stark visual reminder of the storm’s intensity in a region where heavy rain is generally rare and drainage infrastructure is not designed for such volumes of water.
The impact extended beyond land transport. Dubai-Sharjah ferry services — vital for commuters navigating between the two major emirates — were temporarily suspended as authorities cited unsafe marine conditions, further illustrating the storm’s breadth of disruption on both land and sea.
Tragically, the storm has been linked to at least one confirmed fatality in Ras Al Khaimah, where a building-collapse incident during the heavy rainfall resulted in the death of a 27-year-old expatriate. Police and emergency services reminded the public that extreme weather can produce dangerous secondary effects such as falling debris and unstable structures.
Officials from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation advised companies to allow employees whose work could be done remotely to stay home on Friday to minimise exposure to hazardous conditions. The government also suspended certain public events in Abu Dhabi as unstable weather continued to dominate the region’s skies.
The severity of the storm drew immediate comparisons to intense rainfall events of prior years, most notably the April 2024 floods, when record rainfall led to widespread inundation, infrastructure damage and thousands of flight cancellations across the Emirates. That storm, which brought spectacular volumes of rain to the desert region, was linked by experts to shifting climate patterns that are making extreme weather events more frequent and severe in the Middle East’s arid environment.
Meteorologists have noted that desert climates such as the UAE’s typically see most precipitation during cooler winter months, but the intensity and impact of this storm — with sustained thunderstorms and persistent downpour — far exceeded normal seasonal expectations, leading officials and scientists alike to emphasise the role of broader climate variability.
As floodwaters recede and infrastructure crews continue clearing debris and draining roads, authorities are urging residents and travellers to remain vigilant, follow official advisories and exercise caution in flood-prone areas. Travel disruptions are expected to continue into the weekend as airports work through backlogs of delayed and rescheduled flights and emergency services coordinate water-removal operations and infrastructure repairs.
The rare but powerful storm stands as one of the most disruptive weather events to hit the Emirates in recent years, creating a stark example of how intensive natural events can rapidly overwhelm urban systems in regions traditionally unaccustomed to heavy rainfall.
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