Unusually Heavy Rain Lashes World’s Largest Hot Desert, Forecast Shows

Forecast imagery from Zoom Earth shows a bout of torrential rain currently lashing the Sahara Desert, which, as the world’s largest hot desert, is known for its dry conditions.

The forecast loop, which Zoom Earth published to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday morning, shows rain moving across northwestern Africa on Wednesday morning. Rain continues to batter the region through Thursday, with the radar forecasting it will continue into Friday. Rain amounts vary from light to heavy, according to the radar.

“Heavy rain is moving across… the Sahara Desert?” Zoom Earth posted with the radar loop. “Mali and Mauritania are experiencing unusually high levels of rainfall right now.”

The post goes on to connect the rainfall to the low number of Atlantic Ocean hurricanes that have impacted the U.S. this year.

“Tropical waves, which often develop into hurricanes, have not been emerging as strongly from central Africa,” Zoom Earth said. “One key factor for the formation of tropical waves is the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). It has shifted farther north than usual. This, combined with a record positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), has altered weather patterns across the Atlantic and Africa.”

The shift has prompted more rain in parts of the world that don’t normally see high amounts of precipitation, Zoom Earth said, like the Sahel and Sahara deserts.

“And so far, fewer hurricanes. If the ITCZ returns to a more typical position, we could see an increase in tropical wave activity, and more storm formation,” Zoom Earth said.

Newsweek reached out to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) by email for comment.

The NHC is currently monitoring five disturbances in the Atlantic Ocean. None of the disturbances show greater than a 20 percent chance of forming into a tropical system in the next 48 hours. Meteorologists warned of an exceptionally active hurricane season earlier this year, citing the transition from El Nino to La Nina and unusually high ocean surface temperatures as driving the high forecast number.

However, there has been a lull in tropical activity so far this year, with meteorologists noting that this was the first Labor Day weekend in 27 years without a named storm swirling in the Atlantic Ocean. The last tropical system to form was Hurricane Ernesto in mid-August, which brought impacts across the Caribbean and East Coast, although it never made direct landfall in the U.S.

Some meteorological organizations have even revised their hurricane forecasts for the rest of the year, with AccuWeather reducing its forecast to 16 to 20 named storms this year, with six to 10 reaching hurricane strength.

Hurricane season runs from June 1 through November and peaks in mid-September.