Dubai flooding sparks cloud seeding questions. What is it and does it work?

By Mary Gilbert | CNN Meteorologist

A torrent of rain on Tuesday flooded parts of Dubai, turned streets into rivers and shut down the world’s second-busiest airport for a time. The deluge of water triggered the question: Was this disaster caused by the United Arab Emirates’ cloud-seeding program?

Officials at the country’s National Center of Meteorology have been cited as saying the rain was not caused by cloud seeding. CNN has reached out to the center for comment.

But even...