Video of camels in a desert flood unrelated to Dubai floods

By: Christian Haag
April 26 2024

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Examples of claims shared online. (Source/Facebook/Screenshot/Edited by Logically Facts)

Context

On April 16, Dubai was hit by heavy rains causing large floods. Approximately 5.6 inches of rain fell over the city, and Dubai International Airport was flooded. Footage also shows flooded highways and stranded cars. 

Following the event, a video with the captions, "The other side of Dubai. The Desert" and "Animals in the flood" went viral, claiming to show the recent flooding. The video shows camels caught by floods in a desert, with some being swept away by the amount of water. In the comments, claims have also been made that the floods were caused by cloud seeding.

However, the video is not from Dubai, nor is it recent.

In fact

The video shows flash floods near Tabuk in Saudi Arabia in 2018. Through keyword searches, we found videos showing similar footage, with the earliest example posted by an Arabic Facebook page on October 26 of that year. On October 27, Puerto Rican meteorologist Ada Monzon posted the footage on Instagram,  and on the same day, Chilean meteorology account Alerta Climagram posted a video on X (formerly Twitter). On November 15, 2018, Indian news channel Northeast Live, posted a segment on YouTube about the floods in Saudi Arabia. The four examples are not exactly the same footage as the viral video, but all four show the flash floods in Saudi Arabia in 2018, the camels caught in it, and identical natural features.

Comparing the Instagram claim video with the 2018 videos, you can see the identical rock formations (red) and the tree (blue). (Source: Facebook/Screenshot/Markup by Logically Facts)

The same footage has gone viral before, claiming to show flooding in Dubai in November 2023 when the country was hit by heavy rain that stopped aircraft traffic. 

Claims that cloud seeding caused the flooding are unfounded but have still gone viral after the event. Cloud seeding is when salts or silver iodide are added to existing clouds to create precipitation using ground-based generators or aircraft. In most cases, it is used to increase snowfall or natural water supply. While the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has used this technique for several years, it cannot create or modify such rainfall as recently seen in Dubai. 

Logically Facts has previously covered claims around cloud seeding and the floods in Dubai.

The verdict

The video is not from Dubai or from 2024. It was taken near Tabuk in Saudi Arabia in 2018. Furthermore, cloud seeding did not cause flooding in Dubai as it could not cause that much rainfall. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.