Oh, the Irony! Floods soak the oil-spewing, Climate change-denying Host of COP28.

The COP28 UN Climate Change Conference was held late last year in Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates. And with the president of the confab being Sultan al-Jaber, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, many eyebrows were raised, especially when he said such things as, “There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5,” in an online event on Nov. 21, according to The Guardian.

MORE ON THE UAE: Dubai, Without Water, Makes Its Own

MORE ON THE UAE: United Arab Emirates Cloud Seeding For Rain

And so it must have been somewhat sobering when the area’s heaviest rains since data collection was started in 1949 hit on Tuesday, an event that flooded Dubai International Airport and roads across the UAE, with people describing harrowing stories of spending the night in their cars, and air passengers enduring chaotic scenes.

Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections, told the AP the flooding was caused by an unusually strong low pressure system that drove many rounds of heavy thunderstorms. The increasing number and intensity of such systems have been widely attributed to rising land and ocean temperatures.

The rains began late Monday, soaking the sands and roadways of Dubai with some 20 millimeters (0.79 inches) of rain, according to meteorological data collected at Dubai International Airport. The storms intensified around 9 a.m. Tuesday and continued throughout the day, dumping more rain and even hail onto the overwhelmed city. By the end of Tuesday, more than 142 millimeters (5.59 inches) of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours. An average year sees 94.7 millimeters (3.73 inches) of rain at the airport, one of the world’s busiest.

“Recovery will take some time,” the airport said on the social platform X.

And if climate change is not slowed, it could turn into a regular event that will make Dr. Al-Jaber rue his words.