NASA SATELLITE CAPTURES SIGHT OF SAHARA DESSERT TURNING GREEN DUE TO HEAVY RAINFALL
Known for being among the driest places on Earth is the Sahara desert. Recently a peculiar weather occurrence has led to the emergence of vegetation in the otherwise desolate terrain. Following a period of intense rainfall, vegetation is seen growing in arid regions of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, as seen in some eye-opening images released by the NASA Earth Observatory.
A wide swath of northwest Africa was soaked by an extratropical cyclone on September 7 and 8, which resulted in pockets of green popping up throughout the Sahara desert, especially shrubs and trees in low-lying areas like riverbeds. Although some Saharan regions receive only a few inches of rain annually, NASA's preliminary satellite analysis shows that the rainfall accumulations were as much as half a foot in the areas affected.
The Sahara desert wasn't always the arid landscape it is today. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's president and director, Peter de Menocal, conducted a study in 2012 that claims that between 11,000 and 5,000 years ago, the Sahara was covered in lakes and vegetation all year round. This means that during periods of significant rainfall, dormant vegetation in the area quickly sprout, transforming arid areas into lush landscapes
The unexpected weather was brought on by the storm system moving northward, which resulted in up to a year's worth of rainfall in some areas in a matter of days. NASA states that this originated over the Atlantic Ocean and spread far south, bringing moisture from equatorial Africa into the northern Sahara. Since mid-July, storms have been sending into the southern Sahara from the Intertropical Convergence Zone, according to data from the Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"The dunes become these just incredibly verdant and flowered fields where the plants will just instantly grow for a short period to take advantage of," de Menocal told ABC News. "These really exceptional rainfall events."The expert continued by saying that while some summer rainfall is typical in the area because of the West African Monsoon season, the tropical rain belt, or Intertropical Convergence Zone, rarely extends as far north as the Sahara. According to De Menocal, the rain belt has shifted, bringing equatorial regions' typical heavy rainfall farther north, as a result of record-high ocean temperatures in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, the rain belt may eventually shift even further north due to climate change. The speaker concluded, "We expect the rain belt to actually go back to its original position when the larger oceans have warmed more uniformly in decades to come."
An extratropical cyclone over the Sahara Desert drenched parts of Morocco and Algeria – bringing up to a year’s worth of rain to some areas. 🌧️ @nasa’s Terra satellite captured floodwaters and some Saharan lakes, usually dry, filled with water. https://t.co/cuS1c73RoA pic.twitter.com/m8Ga8G0FgO
— NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) September 17, 2024