It's been raining in the country - on and off - since Saturday.

UAE residents can expect more rain this week as cloud-seeding operations continue, the National Centre for Meteorology (NCM) said.

It's been raining in the country - on and off - since Saturday, with temperatures dipping to a low 17 degrees Celsius in internal areas and down to 9.9 degrees Celsius at Jebel Jais, the UAE's highest mountain.

The head of cloud-seeding operations at the NCM, Khalid Al Obeidi, told Khaleej Times that they have carried out more than 15 operations this month as rain clouds have been hovering over the country.

On Sunday alone, from 12am to 12pm, they conducted four operations. They'll be doing more in the coming days as rain clouds approach the UAE.

"We do seeding in clouds that need help (in producing rain). On Sunday, for example, we did several flights from the morning because we expected some rain clouds over the country. We are expecting to do more flights and operations in the coming hours. In the next two days, the forecast is showing that some rains will affect the country, so we'll carry out more operations," Obeidi said on Sunday.

The NCM's cloud-seeding operations involve shooting salt flares into clouds before they reach their "decay stage". The salt in the flares enhances the possibility of rain. Each flight can shoot up to 40 flares and the NCM uses six satellites to detect clouds.

The NCM has said Monday will be partly cloudy in general, with fresh to strong winds over the sea at a speed of 25 to 38kmph. The sea is expected to be "very rough" in the Arabian Gulf and "rough" in the Oman Sea.

On Tuesday, it's expected to be partly cloudy to cloudy at times, with a probability of some light rainfall.

Rainshowers hit UAE

There was a bit of rain and thunder over parts of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Al Ain, Fujairah, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah in the early hours of Sunday morning.

In Ruwayyah area in Dubai, the rain even came with hail, according to the National Centre for Metrology and Seismology.

The downpour in some areas in RAK had even toppled trees and broke some poles, according to residents and the police.

Falling rocks and flooded houses were also among the emergencies that RAK authorities responded to during the rainy day.

sarwat@khaleejtimes.com

ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com