Photos of torrential Dubai flash floods show the downsides of trying to control the weather

Highways turned to rivers as drivers abandoned stuck vehicles, homes and businesses have been damaged, and flights at one of the world’s busiest airports have been significantly disrupted.

No one reports the type of flooding that on Tuesday doused the UAE, which often deploys the technology in an attempt to squeeze every drop of moisture from a sky that usually gives less than four or five inches (10 to 13 centimetres) of rain a year.

In a historic weather event, the UAE witnessed its heaviest rainfall on record.

A Scottish expat living in the United Arab Emirates has compared the record-breaking rainfall in Dubai to the “apocalypse”.