Floods hit... the SAHARA! Shocking before and after satellite images show a huge lake emerging after the desert was struck by its biggest deluge for decades

It's known arsenic 1 of nan driest places connected our planet. 

But shocking earlier and aft images show precisely what happened erstwhile nan Sahara Desert was struck by its biggest deluge for decades. 

The images were captured by NASA's Landsat 9 - an Earth study outer that regularly beams backmost photos of our planet. 

In nan first image, Algeria's salt-encrusted Sebkha el Melah tin beryllium seen connected August 12, earlier nan rains hit. 

By September 29, a immense greenish reservoir had emerged astatine nan site, aft runoff from a large wind partially filled nan ephemeral godforsaken lake. 

And arsenic world temperatures proceed to rise, NASA says that we could spot much regular flooding successful parts of nan Sahara. 

'What's going to hap successful nan Sahara remains very unclear, but we dream that we'll yet create a amended knowing of nan Sahara's early by studying these lake-filling events,' said Moshe Armon, a elder teacher astatine nan Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 

While astir of america cognize nan Sahara Desert to beryllium covered successful sand, astir 11,000 to 15,000 years ago, it looked very different.  

Geologic and archaeological grounds indicates that vegetation, wetlands, and moreover lakes erstwhile covered ample areas of nan desert. 

However, past month, hints of this wetter and greener past started to reappear, aft an extratropical cyclone dropped a deluge of rainfall connected parts of bluish Africa. 

On August 12, nan OLI-2 camera connected committee nan Landsat 9 outer captured a image of nan salt-encrusted Sebkha el Melah. 

The outer observed nan reservoir opening to capable successful mid-September, and by September 29, greenish waters emerged. 

'The reservoir is situated on a ridge of nan Ougarta Range and fed by nan Oued Saoura, an ephemeral stream (sometimes called a wadi) that enters from nan southeast,' NASA explained. 

By October 16 nan reservoir was one-third full, pinch h2o covering 74 quadrate miles to a extent of 7.2ft (2.2 metres), according to Mr Armon. 

The filling of a reservoir successful nan Sahara Desert is very rare. 

In fact, since June 2000, only six rainfall events delivered capable h2o to commencement filling nan reservoir astatine all. 

And only 2 different rainfall events - 1 successful 2008 and 1 successful 2014 - resulted successful larger reservoir volumes than this.

However, erstwhile Sebkha el Melah does fill, nan h2o tends to instrumentality astir for years. 

After nan reservoir filled backmost successful 2008, it wasn't until 2012 that it dried up completely.  

'If we don't get immoderate much rainfall events, a 2.2-meter depth, for illustration we person now, would return astir a twelvemonth to evaporate completely,' Dr Armon said.

Beyond Algeria, nan Moroccan authorities said two days of rainfall successful September exceeded yearly averages successful respective areas that spot little than 250 millimetres annually, including Tata, 1 of nan areas deed hardest.

In Tagounite, a colony astir 280 miles southbound of nan capital, Rabat, much than 100 millimetres was recorded successful a 24-hour period.

The storms near striking images of h2o gushing done nan Saharan sands dotted by castles and godforsaken flora.

NASA satellites showed h2o rushing successful to capable Lake Iriqui, a celebrated reservoir furniture betwixt Zagora and Tata that had been barren for 50 years.

In godforsaken communities frequented by tourists, 4x4s motored done nan puddles and residents surveyed nan segment successful awe.

'It's been 30 to 50 years since we've had this overmuch rainfall successful specified a short abstraction of time,' said Houssine Youabeb of Morocco's General Directorate of Meteorology.

According to a study published coming by nan World Weather Attribution, human-caused ambiance alteration worsened nan deadly Africa floods, which killed hundreds of group and displaced millions successful Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan.

'These results are incredibly concerning,' said Izidine Pinto, 1 of nan study's authors and a interrogator astatine nan Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. 

'With each fraction of a grade of warming, nan consequence of utmost floods will support increasing. 

Joyce Kimutai, a interrogator astatine Imperial's Centre for Environmental Policy, added: 'Africa has contributed a mini magnitude of c emissions globally, but is being deed nan hardest by exteme weather.'