Dubai airport operations resume as UAE's heaviest recorded rains cause road flooding.

Attention! Dubai airport operations are now back to normal after facing a temporary disruption due to the recent heavy rains. However, the roads to the airport are still affected by flooding caused by the heaviest rains ever recorded in the UAE. Please plan your journey accordingly and allow for extra time to reach the airport. Your safety is our top priority, and we apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, struggled on Thursday to recover from the heaviest recorded rainfall to ever hit the desert nation. Floodwater still covered portions of major highways and roads, making it difficult for people to move around. Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest airport for international travel, allowed global carriers to fly into Terminal 1 on Thursday morning, while Terminal 3 also reopened later in the day. However, the airport warned passengers to come only if their pending departure was confirmed due to delays and disruptions caused by the heavy rainfall.

The long-haul carrier Emirates had suspended travelers from checking into their flights due to the storm that hit the country on Tuesday. Pilots and flight crews had been struggling to reach the airport given the water on the roads, but on Thursday, customers were allowed into the airport. However, some passengers reported hours-long waits to get their baggage, with some giving up and heading home or to any hotel that would have them.

The UAE, a hereditarily ruled, autocratic nation on the Arabian Peninsula, typically sees little rainfall in its arid desert climate. However, a massive storm forecasted for days blew through the country's seven sheikhdoms. By the end of Tuesday, more than 5.59 inches of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours. An average year sees 3.73 inches of rain at Dubai International Airport. Other areas of the country saw even more precipitation.

The UAE's drainage systems quickly became overwhelmed, flooding out neighborhoods, business districts, and even portions of the 12-lane Sheikh Zayed Road highway running through Dubai. The state-run WAM news agency called the rain "a historic weather event" that surpassed "anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949."

In a message to the nation late Wednesday, Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, said the authorities would "quickly work on studying the condition of infrastructure throughout the UAE and to limit the damage caused." Tanker trucks with vacuums began reaching some areas outside of Dubai's downtown core for the first time as well. Schools remain closed until next week.

Authorities have not provided overall damage or injury information from the floods, which killed at least one person. Climatologists have warned for years that human-driven climate change is fueling more extreme and less predictable weather events across the globe.

Parts of southern Russia and Central Asia have also been dealing with unusually damaging amounts of rainfall and snowmelt, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate to higher ground and killing more than 120 people in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Dubai hosted the United Nations' COP28 climate talks just last year. Abu Dhabi's state-linked newspaper, The National, in an editorial Thursday, described the heavy rains as a warning to countries in the wider Persian Gulf region to "climate-proof their futures."