When the mercury goes north, people wait for rain. But in Dubai, they don’t wait, they create rain. As temperatures soared to 50°C (112°F), the UAE city decided to fall back on technology. The plan being to send drones and create ‘shocks’ in the clouds in order to make them rain.

This technique of fake rain involves sending electrically charged drones into clouds, encouraging tiny droplets to grow and combine and eventually fall. It creates monsoon-like downpour.

The National Centre of Meteorology came up with this million-dollar idea to bring respite from the blistering summer and to address rain scarcity. The Centre shared a video on Sunday that shows heavy flooding on roads caused by the artificial rain. Not just rain, even lightning flashes can be seen.

Dubai was the first on the list for the trials of drones. And this idea was declared successful as heavy rains lashed the city. The average annual rainfall in the capital Abu Dhabi is just 42mm and most of it falls during winter. Dubai is aware of this situation and has been spending money on multiple rain enhancement projects for decades.

Water scarcity is the big issue faced by the UAE in this century. According to the CIA, the country uses about 44 billion cubic metres of it each year but has access to about 4 percent of that in renewable water resources.