While in Spain it is expected to rain naturally, in some countries it is already happening work has been going on for years to create artificial rain. One of the best examples is the United Arab Emirates, which has gone viral in recent days via social networks. There, in the middle of the Dubai desert, they managed to create rain on demand using drones and in combination with other technologies.

TikTok user @yourcareerbestie has shared a video on the famous social network in which he shows a rainy day in Dubai from the window of his house, and it has gone viral. In the publication, he pointed out that the water falling from the sky is not natural, but artificial, because it is created thanks to a system developed by the city of the United Arab Emirates.

In the Dubai desert the temperature can reach 50 degrees Celsius and the chance of rain in this arid region is less likely. To get artificial rain, the United Arab Emirates National Meteorological Center has a certain method: they send drones that conduct electrical discharges in the clouds to generate precipitation.

@karieranda very strong today #dubai it’s already raining🫢😱🌧 #live abroad #random stuff #curiosity #for you #fyp ♬ original sound – Your Career Bestie

A technique called ‘cloud seeding’ and basically consists of getting the clouds to release as much water as possible, even under the most incompatible conditions, such as on a very hot day. A helpful technology increases the low annual rainfall and that in Spain it would be ideal to combat the drought it is facing. But how does this invention actually work?

Drones were created by scientists at the University of Reading, in England, and are able to fly autonomously into the cloud to, with a laser, generates an electric charge so that clouds clump together and produce rain. A method British scientists found less intrusive than pouring chemicals to cause water to fall from the sky.

Cloud seeding is not a new technique, but it has been around for many years and has various methods. For example, countries like China or the United Arab Emirates themselves also use it aircraft loaded with silver iodide, salt or other chemicals induce rain or snow.

This is because clouds, which are made up of tiny water molecules suspended in the air, tend to precipitate when stimulated with chemicals. However, this method is more aggressive and less effective than what the United Arab Emirates has achieved with drones, electricity and state-of-the-art technology.

unite the droplets

This technology is being tested in Dubai, a country that has invested around 15 million euros in this project and where Several tests have been carried out to verify its operation for its official launch, as shown in the video shared by the United Arab Emirates National Meteorological Center on Twitter. In the test, the scientists built four unmanned drones about 2 meters wide which they launched from a special platform.

Some of the engines are capable of flying for up to 40 minutes and incorporate sensors to measure the temperature, humidity and electrical charge of the cloud. In this way, you can know when and where to give electric shockslike a kind of false lightning, so that the tiny dots in the cloud coalesce and are just the right size to fall to earth as rain.

“If you shoot a discharge into the cloud, it will immediately fill with water droplets. Our theory suggests that charging these droplets increases the likelihood that they will be agglomerated by electrostatic discharge, which makes them rain,” explained Dr. Keri Nicoll, an expert in the Meteorology Department of the University of Reading, last December.

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