Historic rainfall in the UAE and Oman saw more than 14cm fall on Tuesday, with the rising death toll currently standing at 20 people.

In just 24 hours Dubai saw more than a year’s worth of rainfall, leading to flight cancellations and business closures.

Moody’s RMS said the Persian Gulf’s rare flood event serves as a stark reminder that flood risk is a “truly global peril”.

“Communities were left submerged in the most severely affected countries of United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman and international travel was significantly disrupted,” said Steffi Uhlemann-Elmer, director of model product management at Moody’s RMS. “The amount of rainfall that has been recorded in this event has exceeded historic levels. However, the region is also no stranger to intense precipitation - it is the scarcity of these events that challenges awareness for the hazard and leads to a lack of planning and preparedness.

“The Gulf region is an area that is typically underserved with solutions for managing flood risk. Moody's global flood hazard data can help to identify the level of risk that can be expected from such flood events and with that can support important risk mitigation action.”

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