By Prasanta Kumar Dash
New Delhi, October 14: While, climatologists were about to shape a roadmap for showering artificial raindrops in world’s hot deserts and mostly in the scanty and rain shadow regions on the globe, as a new hope for vegetation amid the Climate Change bigul, the Sahara Landscape has now emerged as a wonderland for them due to erratic deluge this September.
A two-day torrential downpour in the September first week has left the sandy desest as a superfluous ocean, disapproving the environmental system of the desert and the climatic models-based newscasts of the meteorologists.
The Super Cyclone in Odisha in October 1999 was uncommon for the state, for its vast domain of fury, devastation and melancholy. However, Fany and Hudhud like less intensive natural phenomena have been proved regular sorrows here in early summer or sometimes during the Low Pressure and Deep Depression systems normally seen in mid-monsoon.
The landslide fury that caused massive devastation in Uttarakhand a few years ago, and the Waywand fury that the Kerla witnessed this monsoon are also some kinds of anticipated calamiites, the high and mountainous valleys almost face time and again though endurable or sometimes with bitter aftermaths.
Similarly, neighbouring Bangladesh also encounters and suffers from tropical cyclones more fequently due to the funnel-shaped Bay of Bengal that amplifies the storm surge of landfalling of severe cyclonic systems here.
The "Great East Japan Earthquake" on 11 March 2011, which was an undersea megathrust earthquake, occurred in the Pacific that lasted approximately for six minutes and caused a tremendous tsunami across the ocean.
It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake recorded in the world since modern seismography began in 1900.The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 meters.
Witnessing the Tsunami in India, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was unusually large in geographical and geological extent. An estimated 1,600 km (1,000 mi) of fault surface slipped (or ruptured) about 15 m (50 ft) along the subduction zone where the Indian Plate slides under (or subducts) the overriding the Burma Plate.
All the above natural calamities were the drastic fallout of loss of forests, decay of mangrove greenery along the waterbodies, global warming and excessive environmental pollution that leads to abnormal Climate Change.
Among scores of furious furies globally experienced yet due to climate change are though alarming for the planet earth and maligning for the biological kingdom,the erratic rain the Sahara desert witnessed this September,was a seigh of relief for the inhabitants and a blessing for the withered away and arid plants.
As per the geographical significance of the Sahara, the world’s biggest dry desert is located in the northern portion of Africa and covers over 3,500,000 square miles (9,000,000 sq km) or roughly 10% of the continent.
At a time when extremely arid conditions and unbearable scorching sun pose challenges to both human and wildlife in the Sahara desert, erratic deluge in monsoon inundated almost all sand dunes, date palm groves in ocean of rainwater, highest ever downpour recorded in last 50 years.
Morocco's Meteorology Agency reported that the village of Tagounite, located 450km south of the capital, Rabat, recorded over 100mm of rain in just 24 hours in September. Dammed reservoirs in the southeast reportedly refilled at unprecedented rates in September due to incessant rain within a 24-hour period where as the flooding in Morocco claimed at least 20 lives.
The Sahara desert, spanning over 9 million square kilometres across North, Central, and West Africa, faces increasing threats from extreme weather due to global warming. Scientists warn that future storms of this magnitude could become more frequent in the region.
Southeastern Morocco's desert is among the most arid places in the world and rarely experiences rain in late summer. However, the recent flood in the ocean of dried sand, made it more like a wet and humid land creating fury for men and animals.
According to the Moroccan government report, the two days of rainfall in September had exceeded yearly averages in several areas that get an average of less than 250 millimeters (10 inches) annually, including Tata, one of the areas hit hardest.
Similarly, in Tagounite, a village about 450 kms (280 miles) south of the capital Rabat, more than 100 mm (3.9 inches) rain was recorded in a 24-hour period.
The storms provided more rainfall than had been seen in decades, leaving striking images of bountiful water gushing through the Saharan sands amid castles and desert flora.
On the incessant rain, Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation, said, "As a result of rising temperatures, the hydrological cycle has accelerated.It has also become more erratic and unpredictable, and we are facing growing problems of either too much or too little of water”.
A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, which is conducive to heavy rainfall. More rapid evaporation and drying of soils worsen drought conditions, he added.
With the concerning weather abnormality, Houssine Youabeb of Morocco's General Directorate of Meteorology said, “Such rains, which meteorologists are calling an extratropical storm, may indeed change the course of the region's weather in months and years to come as the air retains more moisture, causing more evaporation and drawing more storms.”
Worth mentioning, six consecutive years of drought have posed challenges for much of Morocco, forcing farmers to leave fields fallow and cities and villages to ration water consumption. While, the last September rain has prompted a hope of monsoon rain in the region.
The bounty of rainfall will likely help refill the large groundwater aquifers that lie beneath the desert and are relied upon to supply water in desert communities. The region's dammed reservoirs reported refilling at record rates throughout September. However, it's unclear how far September's rains will go toward alleviating drought in the hottest regions.
Water that gushed through the sands and oases left more than 20 dead in Morocco and Algeria and damaged the farmers' harvests, forcing the government to allocate emergency relief funds, including in some areas affected by last year's earthquake.
Satellite report of NASA revealed water rushed in to fill Lake Iriqui, a famous lakebed between Zagora and Tata that had been absolutely dry for the last 50 years, following the extratropical storm.
