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Dramatic images show the first floods in the Sahara in half a century flooding

Dramatic images show the first floods in the Sahara in half a century flooding

Dramatic images have emerged of the first floods in the Sahara in half a century.

Two days of rain in September exceeded the annual average in several areas of southeastern Morocco and caused flooding, officials from the country’s meteorological agency said in early October. More than 100 mm (3.9 inches) was recorded in 24 hours in Tagounite, a village about 450 km (280 miles) south of the capital Rabat.

NASA satellite images showed that Lake Iriqui, a lake bed between Zagora and Tata that has been dry for 50 years, is being filled.

“It’s been 30 to 50 years since we had so much rain in such a short period of time,” Houssine Youabeb, an official with Morocco’s meteorological agency, told the Associated Press.

In addition to the formation of small lakes, reservoirs in southeastern Morocco refilled at a record pace in September. Photo: AP

Such rains, which meteorologists call an extratropical storm, could alter weather conditions in the region in the coming months and years. Because the air contains more moisture, it promotes evaporation and provokes more storms, Youabeb said.

Floods in Morocco killed 18 people last month and the impact extended to regions hit by an earthquake last year. There were also reports of dammed reservoirs in the southeastern region refilling at a record pace throughout September.

The Sahara, the world’s largest hot desert at 9.4 million square kilometers (3.6 million square miles), stretches across a dozen countries in North, Central and West Africa. Recurrent droughts are a problem in many of these countries as extreme weather events increase due to global warming. This has led to predictions from scientists that similar storms could occur in the Sahara in the future.

Flooding in the desert city of Merzouga. Extratropical storms could alter weather conditions in the region in the coming months and years. Photo: AP

Celeste Saulo, the secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, told reporters on Monday that water cycles around the world are changing more and more frequently.

“As temperatures rise, the water cycle has accelerated. It has also become more erratic and unpredictable and we are facing increasing problems with either too much or too little water,” she said.