Above image: Attendees of the 2024 PMM Science Team Meeting.

Most people live in places where it rains much more often than it does in the Sahara Desert. For this reason, it can be challenging to make sense of news reports of major storms in the Sahara. NASA satellite data and rainfall statistics can give the needed context. Below is a discussion of three news stories about rainfall in or near the Sahara Desert during August and September 2024. These news stories described storm runoff, infrastructure damage, and the rain's impact on the ecosystems at the edge of the desert. Areas with significant impacts are shown in green in Figure 1. Figure 1. A map

During the 10-day period from Oct. 26 through Nov. 4, 2024, parts of central-eastern and southern Spain saw unusually heavy flooding that resulted in heavy infrastructure damage and over 200 fatalities, according to the Associated Press. In this animation, NASA’s IMERG multi-satellite data product shows estimated rain rates (blue/yellow shading) and accumulations (green/purple shading) from the flooding rainfall. Cloudiness is also shown in white/gray shading, from geosynchronous infrared satellite observations. Download video (right-click -> "Save As") The flooding was caused by heavy