Rapid Fire
Rare Rain in the Sahara Desert
- 10 Oct 2024
- 1 min read
Recently, a rare deluge of rainfall has flooded palm trees and sand dunes of the Sahara desert in Morocco.
- The rain was triggered by the northward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), which has moved further north than usual, resulting in equatorial-like downpours in the Sahara.
- ITCZ has produced a powerful extratropical cyclone that swept through northwestern Africa.
- An extra-tropical cyclone is a low-pressure system which develops in latitudes outside the tropics which can bring heavy rainfall.
- Repositioning of ITCZ may be linked to record-high ocean temperatures and climate change.
- Sahara Desert: It is the world's largest hot desert having a length of approximately 4,800 km and a maximum width of 1,800 km.
- It occupies about 31% of the entire African continent.
- It stretches among 11 North African nations including Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Morocco, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Chad, Libya, Mauritania, Niger, and Sudan.
Read More: Deserts in the World
