Was the freak 'medicane' storm that devastated Libya a glimpse of North Africa's future?

By Mike Rogerson, Senior Lecturer in Earth System Science, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Belkasem Alkaryani, Lecturer in Geology, University of Tobruk
Mahjoor Lone, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Palaeoclimatology, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Storm Daniel landed on the Libyan coastal town of Toukrah in the early hours of September 10 and started moving east. Soon the wind was rising and heavy rain falling, forcing people to stay indoors. By afternoon the rain was clearly out of the ordinary.

Albaydah city on the coast would receive 80% of its annual rain before midnight, according to records from a local weather station that we have accessed. In less than 24 hours, thousands of people were dead, hundreds of thousands were missing, and towns and villages across Jebel Akhdar (the Green Mountain) in north-eastern Libya resembled…

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