Weather Extremes : Record March Heat in Germany/Heavy Rain in Egyptian Desert | Weather Underground

Weather Extremes : Record March Heat in Germany/Heavy Rain in Egyptian Desert | Weather Underground: Extremely rare heavy rainfall has soaked portions of the Upper Egypt Nile River region, one of the driest places on earth. Luxor (home of the world-famous Valley of the Kings) picked up an astonishing 30 mm (1.18”) of rain on March 9-10, of which 21 mm (0.83”) fell in just the course of a few hours. The annual average rainfall for Luxor is just .04” (a little over 1 mm).



Climate data for Luxor. Note the paltry average annual rainfall of .04”, just over 1 mm. Only portions of Chile’s Atacama Desert are drier.



Aswan received 15 mm (0.59”) also on March 9-10 (Aswan’s average annual precipitation is 1.4 mm/.06”). It was the first measurable rainfall in Aswan since October 2012. The rainfall in Aswan and Luxor was accompanied by thunder and hail according to news reports. The last major flood disaster in the region occurred in early November 1994 when torrential rains in Luxor caused serious flooding and in Durunka (about 100 miles down river from Luxor) a flood caused a bridge to collapse on two fuel storage tanks which then exploded. The fiery flood that resulted killed over 500 in the city of 20,000.