Fact check: UAE floods formed river in desert, camels drowning

Amidst flooding in Dubai, a viral video circulating on social media purportedly showing camels drowning in the floods has been debunked as old footage from Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

The video, which has been shared widely on WhatsApp, depicts several clips of waterlogged roads and thunderstorms, with claims that it captures the recent heavy rainfall and floods in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), particularly in Dubai.

Fact check

The video was uploaded on a verified YouTube channel on November 15, 2018, with the description stating 'Flash floods claim 30 lives in Saudi Arabia'. The visuals in the video are indeed from flood-hit Saudi Arabia in 2018, as confirmed by the accompanying description.

The video's description and its upload date indicate that it does not pertain to recent events in Dubai. Instead, it documents flash floods that occurred in Saudi Arabia in 2018, claiming 30 lives. Furthermore, news articles reporting on the flash floods in Saudi Arabia during that time provide additional evidence corroborating the origin of the footage.

Additionally, social media users had previously shared the same video in 2018, further affirming its connection to the Saudi Arabian floods of that year.

The same YouTube video was uploaded again on November 13, 2023. The footage predates the reported UAE floods and is identified as showing weather conditions in northwestern Saudi Arabia, not Dubai.

This debunking reveals that the viral video circulating on social media does not accurately represent the recent floods in Dubai. While the UAE has indeed experienced heavy rainfall and flooding, the footage in question originates from Bahrain and is not related to the current weather events in Dubai.

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