The Sahara Desert has experienced increased rainfall and even snow in recent years. This has led to the growth of visible vegetation in certain areas. Satellite images of Tanout, Niger, acquired on September 8, 2024, show a visible increase in green patches compared to images from September 14, 2023.
The increased rain is due to the northward shift of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Located at the convergence of the northeast and the southeast trade winds, the ITCZ is known by sailors as the doldrums because of its monotonous, windless weather. It encircles Earth near the thermal equator, although its position varies seasonally. The ITCZ appears as a band of clouds, usually thunderstorms, that encircle the globe near the Equator.
The ITCZ shift and the record-positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) have altered weather patterns across the Atlantic and Africa. This shift has increased rainfall in the Sahel and Sahara Desert regions. In the Sahara, the change of the ITCZ is bringing above-average rain, with some areas expecting to see 500% of typical monthly rainfall. 2024 is forecasted to be the wettest year for the Sahara Desert since 1994.
Overall, the researchers identified more than 38,000 heavy precipitation events over the Sahara and found that roughly 30 percent of those occurred during the summer.
“While some degree of rainfall in this region happens every summer, what’s unique this year is the involvement of an extratropical cyclone,” said Moshe Armon, a senior lecturer at the Institute of Earth Sciences and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The system formed over the Atlantic Ocean and extended far southward, pulling moisture from equatorial Africa into the northern Sahara.
“What’s also fascinating is that normally dry lakes in the Sahara are filling due to this event,” Armon added.
This discovery by scientists is consistent with Isaiah’s vision of weather in the post-Messiah world:
The arid desert shall be glad, The wilderness shall rejoice And shall blossom like a rose. Isaiah 35:1
I am about to do something new; Even now it shall come to pass, Suddenly you shall perceive it: I will make a road through the wilderness And rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19
