The desert area of the UAE (including some parts of Dubai) have been hit with wet, windy and even icy weather today…

It’s hot and sunny in the coastal areas of Dubai right now (naturally), but there’s actually wet weather across much of the UAE today.

Don’t believe us? This video posted by the UAE’s official weather service shows how it’s been hailing in Sharjah today. Yes, hail in August:

We love that sound.

But seriously, hail?! How does ice even form in peak-summer, given the temperature in the atmosphere?

Well, remember, hail forms when there’s an updraft that takes moisture high up in the atmosphere, at altitudes above freezing level (and it then eventually becomes heavy and falls to the ground). We imagine the icy droplets are melting almost instantly once they hit the ground here in the UAE.

Think about how cold it is outside of an airplane when it’s thousands of feet above the air – it’s always cold up there, no matter what the temperature is down below.

 

Here’s another video that shows how heavy the rain in Sharjah has been today:

The rain and hail has been centered in the interior of the UAE, in the desert areas where Sharjah meets the Eastern Emirates and Al Ain.

Wet weather has hit the Dubai emirate too, with rain reported in Al Lisaili, aka near the Dubai Rugby Sevens ground on the Dubai-Al Ain Road.

Here’s a video taken in that area today:

So yes, if you’re driving along the Dubai-Al Ain Road today, be very careful.

Here’s a radar map from 4pm today that shows the rain hovering over the UAE – green means cloud cover, light blue is drizzle, dark blue is light rain, yellow and orange are moderate rain, red is heavy rain and pink is hail.

The weather service (NCMS) are also expecting some rain in parts of the UAE tomorrow and on Friday (although it’s quite unlikely to hit Dubai city).

This forecast map from the NCMS shows how the rain is concentrated inland, not on the coasts (which is where most of the UAE’s population lives):

This graph from the NCMS that takes data from 13 years, shows just how rare rain is at this time of year (let alone hail):

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Photos: NCMS