A historic deluge has transformed parts of the Sahara Desert, once barren and arid, into a landscape of blue lagoons and lush greenery. This extraordinary event, unprecedented in decades, has captivated the world and raised questions about the future of this arid region.
To learn more about this fascinating event, please watch the following video and complete the exercise below:
LEVEL 2 INTERMEDIATE
Listen and fill in the blanks:
A rare and heavy rainstorm recently flooded parts of the Sahara Desert for the first time in decades, forming lagoons of blue water between the sand dunes and palm .
The downpour brought more rainfall to some of the driest areas than they had experienced in many .
The southeastern region of Morocco is one of the most arid places on the planet and typically sees very little rain in late .
However, two days of rainfall in September surpassed the yearly average in multiple locations, including Tata, where annual precipitation usually doesn’t exceed 10 .
In Tagounite, a village around 280 miles south of Rabat, over 3.9 inches of rain fell within 24 .
The storms left behind stunning images of water flowing through the Saharan landscape, with streams cutting across sand and desert .
NASA’s satellite data also captured the sight of water filling Lake Iriqui, a well-known dry lakebed that hadn’t seen water in five .
This unusual weather, classified as an extratropical storm by meteorologists, may influence the region’s future climate patterns by increasing the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, potentially leading to more .
While the rain replenished underground water supplies and filled reservoirs at record rates, its long-term impact on the drought remains .
The storms caused fatalities and damaged crops in both Morocco and Algeria, prompting the government to provide emergency .
Answer Key:
- 1. trees
- 2. years
- 3. summer
- 4. inches
- 5. hours
- 6. plants
- 7. decades
- 8. storms
- 9. uncertain
- 10. aid
Transcript:
A rare and heavy rainstorm recently flooded parts of the Sahara Desert for the first time in decades, forming lagoons of blue water between the sand dunes and palm trees. The downpour brought more rainfall to some of the driest areas than they had experienced in many years.
The southeastern region of Morocco is one of the most arid places on the planet and typically sees very little rain in late summer. However, two days of rainfall in September surpassed the yearly average in multiple locations, including Tata, where annual precipitation usually doesn’t exceed 10 inches. In Tagounite, a village around 280 miles south of Rabat, over 3.9 inches of rain fell within 24 hours.
The storms left behind stunning images of water flowing through the Saharan landscape, with streams cutting across sand and desert plants. NASA’s satellite data also captured the sight of water filling Lake Iriqui, a well-known dry lakebed that hadn’t seen water in five decades.
This unusual weather, classified as an extratropical storm by meteorologists, may influence the region’s future climate patterns by increasing the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, potentially leading to more storms. While the rain replenished underground water supplies and filled reservoirs at record rates, its long-term impact on the drought remains uncertain. The storms caused fatalities and damaged crops in both Morocco and Algeria, prompting the government to provide emergency aid.
