This is so UAE. You arrive at the office and a discussion ensues about whether it rained last night … or did not. And each side can make plausible arguments.

“Rain” being a word we use here to describe any descent of water from the skies. Even the briefest and most inoffensive. And nearly unnoticeable.

The back story:

It has not really rained in Abu Dhabi for two years. OK, it rained a bit on the weekend of the Abu Dhabi golf tournament a year ago in January. I know because I was on the course and got a teeny bit wet. But that was it; the one day.

Since then … nothing. Some rain in other parts of the country, but not here in Abu Dhabi. Which, yes, is one of the driest parts of the UAE. In weather history, Abu Dhabi gets four inches of rain a year. But not lately.

So, Sunday night/Monday morning: At about 6 a.m., I woke to what sounded like someone throwing tiny pebbles at the bedroom window. “Hmm, who is throwing stuff at my window?” is what I thought. But then it struck me that, hey, maybe … just maybe … that’s rain! Not that, of course, I really know what rain sounds like, in the UAE.

Later that morning, a report came into the newsroom about “flooding at Saadiyat Island”, which is just up the coast from Abu Dhabi. That triggered a debate on the news desk about whether the flooding was because of rain … or whether a water pipe had ruptured … or whether someone had just gotten the story wrong and confused flooding on Saadiyat with flooding in the tunnel of a construction project in the Tourist Club neighborhood. (They are digging, and the seawater table is really high, and they can’t get this particular tunnel to dry out.)

What tipped the scales in favor (at least in my mind) of at least a teeny bit of rain? Besides the otherwise inexplicable little puddles on some roads?

My copy of The National, which is delivered about 4 in the morning … was soggy! Not soaking wet, but a little bit soggy.

We don’t really have dew here, so my wrinkled newspaper was evidence of at least some sort of rainfall. I should have taken a picture of it. The fact that dust subsequently had adhered to what had been, a few hours before, a semi-wet newspaper, only bolstered my case. The dust wouldn’t have coated it so heavily had it been dry.

Some, however, who did not see my paper, remain unconvinced.

Rain? No! Maybe a sewer somewhere backed up.

In three “winters” here I have yet to experience rainfall that lasts more than about five minutes. And the fleeting nature of it, and the way it immediately runs off the hard, hard earth …

Hard to prove it ever rains here.

And, full disclosure: We did not run a story about rain having fallen. We “rain” proponents couldn’t meet the burden of proof, I guess.