precipitation · United Arab Emirates
Dubai
Annual rainfall total
Modelled demonstration series · not observed data
In a desert city the annual rainfall total is almost meaningless as an average and enormously meaningful as an event. Drainage is sized for a year's rain, not a day's. When a total like this arrives compressed into hours, roads become the drainage system by default and the airport becomes a lake.
75 years, modelled
Same reading, two normals
| Normal | Mean | σ | Pct | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951–1980 | 95 mm | +4.80σ | >99.999th | 1 in 1.3 million years |
| 1991–2020 | 156 mm | +1.41σ | 92nd | 1 in 13 years |
Today would rank 3 of 76 for highest value in the modelled series. Nothing about the reading changes between rows — only the yardstick.
The season here
Rain here arrives in a handful of hours per year, if at all. The annual total is effectively a record of two or three storms.
Where this series comes from
MODELLED SERIES — not observed. Parameters set from published Dubai annual-rainfall climatology (long-term mean under 100 mm with very high year-to-year variability); lognormal transform applied. The 75 annual values are synthesised by the seeded generator.
Every number on this page comes from a modelled series: 75 annual values synthesised by a seeded generator from published climatological parameters for Dubai. It shows how anomaly reasoning works. It is not a measurement and must not be cited as one.
How to read σ
σ counts standard deviations from this place's own normal. The sigma guide · return periods.
More precipitation stations
Open Dubai on the field →