Sahara desert hit by extraordinary rainfall event that could mess with this year's hurricane season

An unusual deluge of rain is hitting the Sahara, one of the driest regions on Earth. It's unclear exactly why the desert is experiencing so much rain, but it could be connected to an especially quiet Atlantic hurricane season, scientists say.

The rain is so heavy that some usually dry regions of North Africa are now experiencing monsoons and flooding, with parts of the Sahara predicted to see five times their average September rainfall.

Precipitation in the Sahara overall is not completely uncommon — the region is huge and diverse, and some parts often receive small amounts of rain, Moshe Armon, an atmospheric scientist at the Federal Technical University (ETH) Zürich, told Live Science. But now larger portions of the Sahara are being inundated, including areas further north where it's usually drier, Armon added.

Some scientists suggest this is part of Earth's natural climate fluctuation, while others say it's a product of human-induced climate change. "The answer is probably somewhere in between," Armon said.

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This climatic shift in the Sahara may be connected to a weaker Atlantic hurricane season. This year's hurricane season has been quiet so far, despite predictions early in the summer of severe hurricane activity due to high ocean temperatures. Meteorologists noted this was the first Labor Day weekend in 27 years without a named storm forming in the Atlantic.

Over half of named storms and 80% to 85% of major hurricanes in the Atlantic each year usually come from the region just south of the Sahara, Jason Dunion, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Live Science in an email.