The UAE is braced for further rainfall at the weekend following a Friday deluge that led to widespread disruption.
Large parts of the Emirates were lashed by heavy rain and thunder on Friday morning, leading to road closures and flight cancellations.
The National Centre of Meteorology forecasts further rainfall in Fujairah and Al Ain on Saturday, but expects Abu Dhabi and Dubai to avoid the worst of the unstable weather.
The weather agency said cloudy skies will persist in both the capital and Dubai throughout the day, giving way to sunny conditions on Sunday.
“Partly cloudy in general, with a chance of convective clouds over some islands, some coastal areas extending to some internal areas, associated with rainfall,” the NCM said of Saturday's forecast, in its latest five-day bulletin.
Temperatures are set to rise slightly on Saturday to highs of 30°C and 29°C in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, respectively, 30°C in Ras Al Khaimah and 31°C in Fujairah.
On Sunday, the mercury will rise again to highs of 31°C in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, 31°C in Ras Al Khaimah and 30°C in Fujairah, the NCM said.
Weather forecasting website Windy said there is a chance of more rainfall and thunder in Dubai between 7am and 10am on Saturday, after which skies will clear for the remainder of the weekend.
Windy forecasts a largely dry weekend in store in Abu Dhabi.
UAE hit by morning downpours
Flights were disrupted at Dubai International Airport on Friday due to the adverse weather.
Thirteen inbound flights were redirected to other airports, while six outbound flights were cancelled, a representative for Dubai Airports said.
Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority also announced on social media that bus lines across the city were suspended, including the E315 from Dubai to Sharjah and the E411 from Dubai to Ajman.
Dubai Police urged motorists travelling on Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Road between Al Rashidiya Bridge and Sharjah to exercise caution and use alternative routes due to flooding in the area.
Sharjah City Municipality said it had sent 96 tanks, 220 mobile pumps and three high-pumping capacity vehicles to clear flooded areas in the emirate.
The National Centre of Meteorology recorded heavy downpours in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Sharjah and Ajman in updates posted to social media.
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Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
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Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Wayne Rooney 53
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
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