Storm Daniel leaves desert lakes visible from space

2023-09-13 13:30:51

Lakes in the Libyan desert caused by Storm Daniel – COPERNICUSEU

MADRID, 13 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The powerful storm Daniel, which has caused at least 5,200 deaths and 8,000 missing in northeastern Libya, has left lakes further south in the desertso large that they are visible from space.

Flooded areas in the eastern Libyan desert have been captured in compared images by the Sentinel 2 satellite of the European Copernicus program, taken on September 2 and 12.

The first shows the desert territory south of Cyrenaica completely covered by sand. Ten days later, large flooded channels appear that run through the desert towards the south, creating in some cases large intense blue lakes. Akgunso exceeds ten kilometers in length.

In the eastern desert of Libya, Rainfall reaches an average that in some cases does not reach 50 millimeters per year.

Storm Daniel is a long-lived Mediterranean cyclone that has been active for more than a week since it formed as a low pressure weather system around September 4.

“Events like Storm Daniel are relatively rare and tend to occur more frequently in the western part of the Mediterranean Sea than on the arid Libyan coast. It is more difficult to understand the potential for catastrophic extreme events in an arid climatewhere rainfall is few and far between, making designing and building resilient infrastructure a challenge,” stated it’s a statement Professor of Climate Risk and Resilience at the University of Reading Liz Stephens.