Dubai flooding amid atypical heavy rains snarls traffic on UAE roads and airport runways

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Heavy rains lashed the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, flooding portions of major highways, leaving vehicles abandoned on roadways across Dubai and grinding traffic at the city-state's huge international airport briefly to a complete halt. Meanwhile, the death toll from separate heavy flooding in neighboring Oman rose to 18, with others still missing as the sultanate prepared for the storm.

The rains began overnight, leaving massive ponds on normally parched streets and airport tarmacs as whipping winds contributed to flight disruptions at Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel and the home of the long-haul carrier Emirates. The airport said in a series of social media posts that all operations were halted for about 25 minutes on Tuesday afternoon, and that all arrivals would be diverted after that "until the weather conditions improve."

By the evening, more than 4.75 inches of rainfall had soaked the UAE — the typical average for an entire year in the desert nation — with more expected in the coming hours.