Winter has well and truly arrived…

Last night Ras Al Khaimah was hit by a spectacular purple storm, but today it was Dubai’s turn to face the wild weather.

The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) had forecast that the UAE would experience a burst of unstable weather from Friday to Monday, with a high chance of thunder and heavy rain in some areas.

On Sunday afternoon, Dubai was lashed by a short downpour which caused flooding in some parts of the city.

Many schools that had not already closed for winter vacation were forced to close early due to the weather, while newly-opened tourist attraction Dubai Safari announced that it would remain closed until the weather cleared.

Dubai Police has recorded 581 traffic accidents in the last 24 hours as a result of the unstable weather, Gulf News reported.

Several Emirates flights were also delayed due to rain and hail at the airport.

Meanwhile, as is tradition in Dubai when the wet stuff makes its rare appearance, dozens of residents took to social media to document the downpour.

HH Sheikh Hamdan, Crown Prince of Dubai, went on a rainy day drive:

???☔️ #rain #Dubai ❤️ مطر مطر

A post shared by Fazza (@faz3) on

Others were excited to see those long-awaited raindrops:


But there was also a lot of flooding:

New water feature outside the office #dubairain #dubaimallaquarium

A post shared by Cat Watson (@catwatson01) on

Dubai usually gets around two days of rainfall in December. February is typically the wettest month of the year, with around five days of rain.

– For more about Dubai straight to your newsfeed, follow us on Facebook