WASHINGTON: Scientists are now seeing signals that the Sahara desert and surrounding regions are greening due to increasing rainfall, all thanks to the rising temperatures due to climate change.
According to National Geographic News, these rains could revitalize drought-ravaged regions, reclaiming them for farming communities.
This trend is supported by climate models, which predict a return to conditions that turned the Sahara into a lush savanna 12,000 years ago. The green shoots of recovery are showing up on satellite images of regions including the Sahel, a semi-desert zone bordering Sahara that stretches 2,400 miles.
The study suggests huge increases in vegetation in areas including central Chad and western Sudan. The transition may be occurring because hotter air has more capacity to hold moisture, which creates more rain, said Martin Claussen of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, in Hamburg, Germany.
