You might not associate Dubai and the UAE with bad weather. It is known for being hot in the winter, hotter in the summer, with a few days of absolutely scorching temperatures at the peak of the hottest hot season…

So why do they seem to have so many weather related diversions and fuel emergencies?*

*They actually don’t have that many but when it gets bad it tends to get very bad and we hear about it.

Some small talk about the weather first.

The UAE does actually have its own seasons. Sort of.

Here’s a quick Meteorology lesson for you: The UAE has an arid desert climate with two main seasons – winter and summer – and transitional periods either side. That arid climate has been veering towards a slightly more tropical one though, with an increase in rainfall over the past few decades, and along with that, an increase in average humidity levels.

And a little nugget of geography: the UAE sits around the 25°N latitude in a subtropical high-pressure belt. This means generally stable and dry conditions – often leading to a temperature inversion. This all tends to trap pollution and moisture near the ground leading to hazy, smoggy murk.

Now, add in the lots of water from the ocean which the UAE sits right next to, the way the desert ground cools a lot quicker than water, all the dust particles that get trapped, a little land breeze… and you have a perfect set up for some radiation fog to form!

Brain fog?

Sorry, you came for airplane stuff and I’m giving you a lesson in weather. But I’m heading somewhere with it I promise.

This ‘winter fog’, which makes up 95% of the fog in the UAE, is most prevalent around December to March, but can be seen from October to February.

Since they started actively monitoring it in 2006, they have actually averaged 132 days of fog a year. Yup, that’s about 1/3 of the year that the UAE sees fog.

Checking back to the 1980s, the number of consecutive days fog events have become more frequent and longer lasting, although les intense (higher visibility values during them). The vast majority of fog events tend to last less than 6 hours, and up to 50% of these are dense fog events (so visibility drops below 100m).

They typically start around 8pm to 2am local time and burn off between around 6am and 9am local time (because there is still that hot, hot sun to help).

But… the peak operational hours for OMDB are between 10pm and 2am for departures, and 4am to 8am for arrivals. So right in the foggy times!

Let’s take a look at OMDB in more details

Enough with the Met mumbo jumbo, let’s talk aviation!

On January 3 2026, EK232 declared a fuel emergency after having to sit and circle near OMDB/Dubai following a long old flight from KIAD/Washington Dulles (13 and a bit hours long in case you’re wondering). If you want to you can track it on FR24.

The visibility at OMDB dropped to 200m which is below the CATI (non LVP approach minimum) of RVR of 550m/800m visibility.

Each runway at OMDB is equipped for CATII/III operations. The CATIIIa RVR minimum is 200m and CATIIIb is 75m. Which approach (and minimas) aircraft can fly is dependant on their operator approvals.

Emirates are approached for the full CATIIIb NO DH extravaganza, meaning they can land with an RVR of just 75m, and without actually being visual with the runway at all (the 75m is required to enable taxi after landing).

Holding patterns

EK232 entered a hold at around 04:10 and exited around 04:54 before diverting off to OMAL/Al Ain.

If you do track this flight you will see that they flew two big holds and then a few small holds. Why is this? Well, holding higher up is better for fuel but you can’t slow down as much so you tend to fly larger patterns.

ATC use the holds to manage the traffic flow. Everything moves a bit slower during LVPs, and ATC have to ensure enough separation on the runways, the ground and the approaches. But they do have to bring you down eventually.

A little fact for fun: Check out the infamous VUTEB hold for aircraft inbound to OMDB/Dubai from the Northwest direction. VUTEB is only 9.6nm from the border with the Tehran FIR. Aircraft are not permitted to enter Tehran airspace without permission, including a pre-entry check-in with Tehran Air Defense. So you have to fly that hold in the right place!

Back to EK232

As for fuel – EK232 was operated on an A380. Like all aircraft, they are legally required to carry a final reserve fuel of 30 minutes. For the A380 this is quite a lot of fuel… but it still equals 30 minutes.

They would also have fuel for an alternate. When fog is forecast, additional holding fuel and contingency fuel is likely to be carried.

However, on a long haul flight with high weights, there is a balance between how much you can carry above the required minimum, and maximum structural weights (such as MTOW, MLW etc) and the maximum quantity of fuel you can load.

So just adding a whole load of fuel on for good luck isn’t possible, and sometimes unexpected things occur en-route leading to extra burn – meaning less available at destination.

EK232 had the fuel to hold for at least 45 minutes because we can watch them doing it. They also retained the fuel to divert to Al Ain.

But they did reportedly declare a fuel emergency.

So what does a fuel emergency mean?

There are two calls which can be made regarding fuel.

Let’s start with the most serious one – the fuel MAYDAY. This is made when the crew calculate that on landing, they will have less than final reserve fuel. In other words, they’re burning into that critical, ‘emergency only’ 30 minutes. It is mandatory to declare a MAYDAY, and ATC must provide you with priority landing.

The second one, which comes earlier, is a little more complicated. Crew declare “minimum fuel” when ‘any change to the current clearance or estimated delay will result in them potentially landing with less than FRSV.’

So, they aren’t saying they will have to declare an emergency, they are just saying “we don’t have much left”. ATC need to know so they can can advise crew if changes do occur, and so they know a diversion might be on the cards. But on minimum fuel ATC have no requirement to give that aircraft priority.

It is just a “heads up”.

For crew, working out when they need to say this is not always easy. They have to know how much they’re burning, how long they’re expecting to hold, what the routing to the landing airport will be, how much fuel that will take…

Leave it too late, and you’ve got yourself a fuel emergency, but doing it too early (particularly if everyone starts to) will mean it loses its emphasis.

EK232 did everything right. They appeared to carry a lot of fuel. They held. When they realised they would’n’t make it into Dubai without burning into their FRSV they diverted.

So, what’s the issue in OMDB/Dubai?

Back in November 2025, extreme heavy fog led to 19 diversions from OMDB in one morning. But OMDB/Dubai is a BIG airport with a BIG operator (actually, a few) operating into you. Emirates (EK), FlyDubai (FZ) and a whole bunch of international flights, so it should be able to accommodate all this. And it also actually sees less fog than neighbouring OMAA/Abu Dhabi…

So why does it always seem to have more issues?

Well, OMDB is the busiest international airport in the world in terms of international passenger numbers, and the busiest by far in the region. In 2024, Dubai saw 440,300 aircraft movements compared to 249,747 in Abu Dhabi.

The airport also handles a significant number of A380s which have higher wake turbulence separation criteria. On approach, a heavy aircraft (Boeing 777, 787, Airbus A330 etc) must maintain a 6nm distance from a ‘Super’ A380. Smaller, medium category aircraft (like the 737s which FlyDubai operate) need even further. A heavy behind a heavy on the other hand only needs 4nm, and a medium behind a heavy requires only 5nm.

So there are operational challenges in terms of runway usage and maximum movements faced at OMDB that OMAA sees some but less of, as well as a much much higher number of traffic overall.

But OMDB has two runways, and they are all CATII/III capable?

Yes it does, and yes they are all big and long and well equipped so even with the slower movements due to LVPs they should be ok?

Here’s the kicker: Dubai’s parallel runways are only separated by 385m which means they cannot operate true independent, simultaneous operations. ICAO requires runways to be separation by 1,035m for simultaneous independent approaches, and 760m for departures.

Yup, despite its big old size, Dubai wasn’t designed with fog in mind.

What are they going to do about it?

Well, they’re going to say “gooDubai” to OMDB and move operations to OMDW/Al Maktoum.

Eventually.

The full transition is planned for around 2032. Currently, OMDW is undergoing a massive expansion which, once the final phases are complete, will see 5 runways and capacity for 150million passengers and around 12 million tonnes cargo per year.

Lots of runways for lots of aircraft in any weather conditions.

So there you have it. OMDB is an interesting airport to watch in those transitional weather periods, and especially during winter, when fog can become a big problem for this airport known for seeing (mostly) sunny weather!