Sudden floods in the Sahara Desert poses possible change on the region’s climate. Image: The Independent
(The Post News)- The Sahara desert, being one of the hottest and dryest places on the planet, has recently been flooded in the Morocco region. On Wednesday, the torrential rain poured down on the area, leaving the landscape unrecognizable because lakes and rivulets of water had formed among the sand dunes.
With the sudden torrents of water running through the sands and oases, it has left more than 20 dead in Morocco and Algeria and damaged the farmers’ harvests, which has forced the government to allocate emergency relief funds, including in some areas that were affected by an earthquake last year.
Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology reported to The Street Journal that it has been 30 to 50 years since they had this much rain in such a short space of time. Meteorologists anticipate that the downpour will lead to more frequent rain in the area. It was proven that the Sahara desert was going to vary between hot and dry. Since this “Green Sahara or North African Humid Period” existed roughly about 6 000 to 11 000 years ago and, in a cyclical nature, is due to return.
Scientists claim that this process only occurs every 21 000 years, but a user on X made a comment on the platform stating that the recent flood could either be a rare fluke or evidence that the process, accelerated by global warning, is happening at a much faster rate.
Despite the unprecedented event, the abundance of rainfall will most certainly assist in replenishing the enormous groundwater aquifers that lay beneath the desert and are relied on to give water to desert communities. It was also discovered that the dammed reservoirs in the region are replenishing at record rates throughout September; however, it is uncertain how far the rains will go.
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