Rare intense rainfall transforms Sahara desert

Morocco's southeastern desert has experienced a rare downpour that has revived some of its lakes and ponds. Locals and tourists have hailed it a "blessing from the sky".

The Moroccan government shared that just two days of rainfall last month exceeded yearly averages that experience an average of less than 10 inches each year. Tata was one of the areas hit the hardest. Meanwhile, in the village of Tagounite, more than 3.9 inches were reported in a single day.

"It’s been 30 to 50 years since we’ve had this much rain in such a short space of time," Houssine Youabeb of Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology, said.

Satellite images have shown lakes emerging in the Sahara, including Algeria's Sebkha el Melah in Algeria and several more in Erg Chebbi in Morocco.

French tourist Laetitia Chevallier described the rainfall as a "blessing". Chevallier added: "The desert became green again, the animals have food again, and the plants and palm trees came back to life."

Getty Images

Another tourist Jean Marc Berhocoirigoin was stunned to find Yasmina Lake filled.

"I felt like a kid on Christmas morning," he said. "I hadn't seen these views for 15 years."

Meanwhile, Moshe Armon, a senior lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said about the water filling Sebkha el Melah in Algeria: "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."

However, the weather last month left more than 20 dead in Morocco and Algeria and damaged the farmers' harvests, as per The Independent. The government allocated emergency relief funds, including in some areas affected by last year's earthquake.

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