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One of the most arid places on earth, the Sahara Desert, is experiencing a dramatic turn of events and witnessed severe flooding after two days of torrential rainfall in southeastern Morocco, reported AP.
According to Morocco’s meteorology agency, the village of Tagounite — located 450km south of the capital Rabat — received over 100mm of rain in just 24 hours in September.
The met agency also mentioned that just two days of September rainfall surpassed the yearly average of 250 mm, including in most arid areas.
The September storms left striking images of water gushing through the Saharan sands amid castles and desert flora, the report added.
On September 10, the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured a false-color image of the resulting runoff and floodwater.
Two weeks ago, NASA’s Earth Observatory satellite images showed the region is seeing a surprising burst of greenery, where water rushes in to fill Lake Iriqui, which is a famous lake bed between Zagora and Tata and dry for 50 years. The same region was dry and arid in the image captured on August 14.
On September 7 and 8, the cyclone drenched parts of the northwestern Sahara, especially large, treeless swaths of the region.
The tourists in 4x4s motored vehicles surveyed the scene in awe.
“It’s been 30 to 50 years since we’ve had this much rain in such a short space of time,” AP quoted Houssine Youabeb of Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology as saying.
What meteorologist say?
According to meteorologists, these rains—extratropical storms—may change the course of the region’s weather in months and years to come. The air retains more moisture, causing evaporation, which leads to more storms, added Youabeb.
For the past six years, droughts have posed challenges for much of Morocco, forcing farmers to leave fields fallow. They also forced them to leave cities and villages to ration water.
This rainfall is expected to help refill the large groundwater aquifers beneath the desert, which are relied upon to supply water to desert communities.
Throughout September, the region’s dammed reservoirs reported refilling at record rates, though it’s still unclear how far September’s rains will go toward alleviating drought.
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