Severe rainstorms battered the United Arab Emirates, triggering widespread flight disruptions and flooding roads in major cities, as the heaviest rainfall in months swept across the desert nation on Friday.

Airport authorities cancelled or delayed dozens of flights, with Dubai’s flagship carrier Emirates cancelling 13 services. Operations were also disrupted at neighbouring Sharjah airport, where several flights faced delays and cancellations following overnight downpours accompanied by lightning and thunder.

In Sharjah, flooding brought parts of the city to a standstill. The emirate’s main street was completely submerged early Friday, forcing residents to wade through knee-deep water.

Anticipating the impact of the storm, Dubai Police had urged residents on Thursday to remain indoors unless travel was “absolutely necessary.” By early Friday, water-pumping trucks were deployed across Dubai to clear blocked roads and drain large pools of standing water.

Dubai Airports confirmed that dozens of flights were delayed or cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. “Some flights...are cancelled or delayed due to adverse weather,” a spokesperson said.

The National Center of Meteorology had issued warnings of rainfall across the country from Thursday through Friday, including in Dubai and the capital Abu Dhabi. Heavy rain was also reported in other Gulf countries, including Qatar, where the third-place playoff match of the Arab Cup between Saudi Arabia and the UAE was cancelled on Thursday.

The scenes revived memories of April 2024, when record-breaking rainfall caused extensive flooding across the UAE and led to the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights at Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest aviation hubs.

Last year’s unprecedented downpours in the UAE—the heaviest recorded in 76 years—claimed at least four lives and brought large parts of Dubai to a standstill for several days. A study by the World Weather Attribution group later concluded that climate change driven by fossil fuel emissions most likely intensified the extreme rainfall that hit the UAE and neighbouring Oman.