A rare deluge of rain left blue lagoons of water amid the palm trees and sand dunes of the Sahara Desert, feeding some of its driest regions with more water than they had seen in ages. decades.
Morocco’s southeastern desert is one of the driest places in the world and rarely experiences rain in late summer.
The Moroccan government said two days of rainfall in September exceeded annual averages in several regions that receive less than 25 centimeters a year, including in Tata, one of the hardest-hit regions. In Tagounite, a village about 280 miles south of the capital, Rabat, more than 3.9 inches were recorded in a 24-hour period.
The storms left striking images of water gushing from the Saharan sands amid castles and desert flora. NASA satellites showed water rushing to fill Lake Iriqui, a famous lake bed between Zagora and Tata that has been dry for 50 years.
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According to NASA, such a phenomenon is so rare in the region that a lake in Algeria, Sebkha el Melah, was filled only six times between 2000 and 2021.
In desert communities frequented by tourists, SUVs drove through puddles and locals looked on in awe.
“It’s been 30 to 50 years since we’ve had this much rain in such a short time,” said Houssine Youabeb, of Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology.
Such rain, which meteorologists call an extratropical storm, could change the region’s weather pattern in the months and years to come as the air traps more moisture, causing more evaporation and attracting more storms , said Youabeb.
AP photo
Six consecutive years of drought have posed problems for much of Morocco, forcing farmers to let their fields fallow and towns and villages to ration water.
Abundant rainfall will likely help fill the vast underground aquifers beneath the desert, which are relied upon to supply water to desert communities. The region’s dammed reservoirs reported filling at a record pace throughout September. However, it is unclear to what extent the September rains will help alleviate the drought.
Water gushing from sands and oases has killed more than 20 people in Morocco and Algeria and damaged farmers’ crops, forcing the government to allocate emergency relief funds, particularly in some areas affected by last year’s earthquake.
