A extraordinary shower of rainfall created turquoise lagoons of water amid the Sahara desert’s palm trees and sand dunes, providing more water than some of its driest sections had seen in decades. The desert in southeastern Morocco is one of the world’s driest, with little rain in late summer.
The Moroccan government said that two days of rainfall in September exceeded yearly norms in some locations that receive fewer than 250 millimetres (10 inches) each year, including Tata, one of the hardest hit. In Tagounite, a village around 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of Rabat, more than 100 millimetres (3.9 inches) of rain fell in a single day.
The storms left striking images of water gushing through the Saharan sands amid castles and desert flora. 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.
Image Source : APAn oasis is reflected in a lake caused by heavy rainfall in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachid
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.
Image Source : APPalm trees are flooded in a lake caused by heavy rainfall in the desert town of Merzouga
Such rains, which meteorologists are calling an extratropical storm, may change the course of the region’s weather in months and years to come as the air retains more moisture, causing more evaporation and drawing more storms, Youabeb said.
Six consecutive years of drought have posed challenges for much of Morocco, forcing farmers to leave fields fallow and cities and villages to ration water.
The bounty of rainfall will likely help refill the large groundwater aquifers beneath the desert that are relied upon to supply water in desert communities. The region’s dammed reservoirs reported refilling at record rates throughout September. However, it’s unclear how far September’s rains will go toward alleviating drought.
Water gushing through the sands and oases left more than 20 dead in Morocco and Algeria and damaged farmers’ harvests, forcing the government to allocate emergency relief funds, including in some areas affected by last year’s earthquake.
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Source: India TV
