If you thought it was hot in the Philippines, try living in a literal desert like Dubai. Right now, the heat is so unbearable that the city and emirate are creating artificial rainstorms with drones. Now, we're all very familiar with cloud seeding but this is a lot more futuristic.
In case you need a refresher: in the past, people have used dynamite as well as small particles injected into clouds to stimulate precipitation. There's also cloud seeding which uses up crushed silver iodide. This tech, however, is fairly new and was only tested starting in March in collaboration with the University of Reading in the U.K.
The laser drones are little discharging electricity to shock rainwater out of the sky. The brains behind the whole thing is Dubai's National Center of Meteorology which posted a series of videos on Instagram that explains and shows how it works better. The account even gave us the results of the process: rain. Pretty cool stuff.
It's a big help to Dubai since the city only gets an average of four inches of rainfall each year. And, with climate change, it's been next to impossible to farm. The issue is one thing that Dubai's heavily invested in. In total, the city has spent $15 million for the projects.
Though the tech offers a temporary solution, experts are worried that it could lead to flooding. Drought and warming still loom... not only in Dubai but in several parts of the world driven by climate change.
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