The desert nation of the United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out on Wednesday from the heaviest rain ever recorded there after a deluge flooded out Dubai International Airport, disrupting travel through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel.

The state-run WAM news agency called the rain on Tuesday “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949”. That was before the discovery of crude oil in this energy-rich nation.

Rain also fell in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. However, the rains were acute across the UAE. One reason may have been “cloud seeding”, in which small planes flown by the government go through clouds burning salt flares. Those flares can increase precipitation.

Several reports quoted meteorologists at the National Centre for Meteorology as saying they flew six or seven cloud-seeding flights before the rains. The centre did not immediately respond to questions on Wednesday, though flight-tracking data analysed by The Associated Press showed one aircraft affiliated with the UAE’s cloud-seeding efforts flew around the country Sunday.

The UAE, which heavily relies on energy-hungry desalination plants to provide water, conducts cloud seeding in part to increase its dwindling, limited groundwater.

The rains began late on Monday, soaking the sands and roadways of Dubai with some 20mm of rain, according to meteorological data collected at Dubai International Airport. The storms intensified around 9 am on Tuesday and continued throughout the day, dumping more rain and hail onto the overwhelmed city.

By the end of Tuesday, more than 142 mm of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours. An average year sees 94.7 mm of rain at Dubai International Airport, a hub for the long-haul carrier Emirates.

At the airport, standing water lapped on taxiways as aircraft landed. Arrivals were halted on Tuesday night, and passengers struggled to reach terminals through the floodwater covering surrounding roads.