(CNN) — Hanging photographs from the Sahara Desert present massive lakes etched into rolling sand dunes after some of the arid, barren locations on this planet was hit with its first floods in a long time.
The Sahara does expertise rain, however normally only a few inches a yr and barely in late summer season. Over two days in September, nevertheless, intense rain fell in components of the desert in southeast Morocco, after a low stress system pushed throughout northwestern Sahara.
Preliminary NASA satellite tv for pc knowledge confirmed nearly 8 inches of rain in some components of the area.
Errachidia, a desert metropolis in southeast Morocco, recorded practically 3 inches of rainfall, most of it throughout simply two days final month. That’s greater than 4 occasions the traditional rainfall for the entire month of September, and equates to greater than half a yr’s price for this space.
“It’s been 30 to 50 years since we’ve had this a lot rain in such a brief area of time,’ Houssine Youabeb from Morocco’s meteorology company advised AP final week.
Because the rain flowed over the desert terrain, it created a brand new, watery panorama amid the palm timber and scrubby flora.
A number of the most dramatic photographs are from the desert city of Merzouga, the place the uncommon deluge carved new lakes into the sand dunes.
The reflections of the city’s palm timber now shimmer throughout the expanse of a brand new lagoon, framed by steep sand dunes.
The rain additionally crammed lakes which can be usually dry, comparable to one in Iriqui Nationwide Park, Morocco’s largest nationwide park. NASA satellite tv for pc photographs from the area, utilizing false coloration to higher spotlight the floodwaters, present newly-formed lakes throughout swaths of the northwest Sahara.
Whereas a lot of the rain fell on sparsely-populated distant areas, some fell on Morocco’s cities and villages inflicting lethal flooding final month, which killed greater than a dozen folks.
The Sahara is the world’s largest non-polar desert, stretching throughout 3.6 million sq. miles. Satellite tv for pc photographs from September confirmed huge swaths of it carpeted in green as storms pushed additional north than ordinary, a phenomenon some studies have linked to human-caused local weather change.
Extra excessive rainfall occasions could be expected within the Sahara sooner or later, in accordance with latest analysis, as fossil gasoline air pollution continues to warmth up the planet and disrupt the water cycle.
CNN’s Brandon Miller contributed to this report.
For extra CNN information and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
