Motorists should check their windscreen wipers are working and switch on lights in overcast weather conditions, police said.

Tailbacks and a few minor accidents, with no one injured, were reported in Dubai and Abu Dhabi following rain on Sunday night.

“We advise in this situation that drivers must keep to the speed limit,” said Lt Imran Abdullah, of Dubai Traffic Police.

As it stands, 60 per cent of the 284 million cubic metres of treated sewage generated in the emirate each year is re-used, said Dr Mohammed Dawoud, water resources manager at Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (Ead).

The remaining 40 per cent is discharged into the sea, affecting the environment and wasting a precious resource, Dr Dawoud said.

“Now Abu Dhabi is targeting to reach 100 per cent utilisation for all treated waste water in the future by 2017 or 2018 maximum,” he said.

It has also been cold in New York, but that is a very different beast. Something called a polar vortex has gripped most of North America and frozen Niagara Falls solid.

Here we can expect the coldest day of the year tomorrow, with a low of 13°C. In New York on Sunday the temperature dropped to –13°C.

Cold, then, is a relative concept. So is heat. It is high summer in New Zealand, where temperatures in the city of Christchurch on Tuesday are expected to hit 19°C. That’s about a degree colder than the highest point of the day expected tomorrow in Abu Dhabi.

Heavy rain fell in Abu Dhabi and Dubai yesterday, with the unsettled weather set to continue.

The maximum temperature on Sunday will be just 22°C with a low of 13°C, forecasters said.

The cloudy weather will continue until Tuesday with a chance of more rain, especially in northern areas, according to the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology.