UAE experiences hottest April in over a decade

The UAE has experienced a noticeable drop in rainfall this year and one of the hottest Aprils (so far) in over a decade.

- Nandini Sircar

Compared to 2024, amounts of rainfall received this year have been much lower, as the country continues its ambitious cloud seeding programme to enhance precipitation in a dry and increasingly hot climate.

According to Ahmed El Kamali, a meteorology expert at the National Center of Meteorology (NCM), the reduction in rainfall is linked to a global weather phenomena.

In an interview with Khaleej Times on Tuesday, he said: "Globally, we are affected by a large-scale weather event called La Niña. It involves a significant cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, along with shifts in tropical atmospheric circulation, such as changes in wind patterns, air pressure and rainfall. This probably explains why we are receiving much less rainfall compared to last year," he said. "Last year, we had extreme weather conditions in the UAE, but this year has been relatively quiet."