What are the risks for the Sahara ecosystem after the floods in Morocco?

The torrential rains that hit Morocco have distorted the landscape of the Sahara desert.With long-term risks for the ecosystem.

The landscape of Sahara desert was overwhelmed by torrential rains which hit the south-east of the country in September Morocco.A video published bears witness to this from the British newspaper The Guardian last October 11th, in which the sand dunes appear interspersed with large lakes.As indicated from the Moroccan newspaper Hespress, “i mountainous reliefs of the region have facilitated the rapid accumulation of water in the valleys, with sudden floods of the waterways".

The amount of rain expected in a year fell in 48 hours

Some satellite images, reported by NASA, they actually show Lake Iriki which has filled up again.It is a basin that has been almost always dry for decades, located between the Draa river and the first foothills of the Atlas mountain range, near the Hon border Algeria.

The rainfall that affected the region was on the other hand extraordinary intensity:in some areas, according to the Moroccan meteorological agency, they fell in just 48 hours more than 200 millimeters of water, or more than is normally expected in an entire year.“Something never seen in the last 50 years,” commented Houcine Youaabed, communications manager at the same agency, as reported from the Associated Press agency.

What led to the floods in the Sahara is an "extra-tropical storm"

A weather event so violent that it was classified as “extra-tropical storm” from the experts:“This rainfall risks changing the balance of the region in the months and years to come, as it increases the humidity of the area, which causes evaporation and consequent extreme phenomena", Youaabed added.

All of this, as Hespress confirms, is attributable to the climate changes:global warming is indeed causing imbalances throughout the world, also due to the growth of ocean water temperature.The flood that hit Morocco also caused the death of eighteen people, while the fury of the floods has demolished 56 houses, destroyed numerous roads and damaged various infrastructures.