From todays DT
The UAE does have an operational cloud-seeding programme to enhance the rainfall in this arid part of the world,” said Prof Maarten Ambaum, a Reading University meteorologist. “ But there is no technology in existence that can create or even severely modify this kind of rainfall event.” No cloud-seeding operations have taken place in the area recently, he added, and there would have been no benefit in seeding clouds that were predicted to produce substantial rain anyway.
“ The [weather] system was identified in our global model, which doesn’t include any inputs on weather modifications,” says Grahame Madge, a Met Office climate spokesman. “So the system at least was naturally occurring .”
In the usually arid Gulf state, where the mercury can rise to 50C in summer, planes regularly carry out cloud seeding, reportedly using salt material components