- READ MORE: Sahara Desert is hit by its biggest deluge for 50 years
It’s known as one of the driest places on our planet.
But shocking before and after images show exactly what happened when the Sahara Desert was struck by its biggest deluge for decades.
The images were captured by NASA’s Landsat 9 – an Earth observation satellite that regularly beams back photos of our planet.
In the first image, Algeria’s salt-encrusted Sebkha el Melah can be seen on August 12, before the rains hit.
By September 29, a huge green lake had emerged at the site, after runoff from a storm partially filled the ephemeral desert lake.
And as global temperatures continue to rise, NASA says that we could see more regular flooding in parts of the Sahara.
‘What’s going to happen in the Sahara remains very unclear, but we hope that we’ll eventually develop a better understanding of the Sahara’s future by studying these lake-filling events,’ said Moshe Armon, a senior lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Shocking before and after images show exactly what happened when the Sahara Desert was struck by its biggest deluge for decades
While most of us know the Sahara Desert to be covered in sand, roughly 11,000 to 15,000 years ago, it looked very different.
Geologic and archaeological evidence indicates that vegetation, wetlands, and even lakes once covered large areas of the desert.
However, last month, hints of this wetter and greener past started to reappear, after an extratropical cyclone dropped a deluge of rainfall on parts of northern Africa.
On August 12, the OLI-2 camera on board the Landsat 9 satellite captured a picture of the salt-encrusted Sebkha el Melah.
The satellite observed the lake beginning to fill in mid-September, and by September 29, green waters emerged.
‘The lake is situated along a ridge of the Ougarta Range and fed by the Oued Saoura, an ephemeral river (sometimes called a wadi) that enters from the southeast,’ NASA explained.
By October 16 the lake was one-third full, with water covering 74 square miles to a depth of 7.2ft (2.2 metres), according to Mr Armon.
The filling of a lake in the Sahara Desert is very rare.
Beyond Algeria, the Moroccan government said two days of rainfall in September exceeded yearly averages in several areas that see less than 250 millimetres annually, including Tata, one of the areas hit hardest
In fact, since June 2000, only six rainfall events delivered enough water to start filling the lake at all.
And only two other rain events – one in 2008 and one in 2014 – resulted in larger lake volumes than this.
However, when Sebkha el Melah does fill, the water tends to stick around for years.
After the lake filled back in 2008, it wasn’t until 2012 that it dried up completely.
‘If we don’t get any more rain events, a 2.2-meter depth, like we have now, would take about a year to evaporate completely,’ Dr Armon said.
Beyond Algeria, the Moroccan government said two days of rainfall in September exceeded yearly averages in several areas that see less than 250 millimetres annually, including Tata, one of the areas hit hardest.
In Tagounite, a village about 280 miles south of the capital, Rabat, more than 100 millimetres was recorded in a 24-hour period.
The storms left striking images of water gushing through the Saharan sands dotted by castles and desert flora.
A view of lakes caused by heavy rainfall between sand dunes in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachidia, southeastern Morocco, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. The Moroccan government said two days of rainfall in September exceeded yearly averages in several areas
Palm trees are reflected in a lake caused by heavy rainfall in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachidia, southeastern Morocco, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024
NASA satellites showed water rushing in to fill Lake Iriqui, a famous lake bed between Zagora and Tata that had been dry for 50 years.
In desert communities frequented by tourists, 4x4s motored through the puddles and residents 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,’ said Houssine Youabeb of Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology.
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According to a study published today by the World Weather Attribution, human-caused climate change worsened the deadly Africa floods, which killed hundreds of people and displaced millions in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan.
‘These results are incredibly concerning,’ said Izidine Pinto, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.
‘With every fraction of a degree of warming, the risk of extreme floods will keep increasing.
Joyce Kimutai, a researcher at Imperial’s Centre for Environmental Policy, added: ‘Africa has contributed a tiny amount of carbon emissions globally, but is being hit the hardest by exteme weather.’