Saudi Arabia can be ravaged by short duration thunder storms
Sheabat Al Saqta
Medium: 17kb This photograph illustrates how a dry wadi can become a river after a thunderstorm. |
Drowned Cherokee
Medium: 14kb This photo shows Wadi Al Ghat that unexpectedly turned into River Al Ghat after a heavy rain storm. |
Street in Jeddah
Medium: 17kb In this picture you can see that even the streets of a large city can become rivers. |
The average annual rainfall for Saudi Arabia is 4.4 inches (112 mm) per year but whole regions may not experience rainfall for several years. The rainfall usually consists of one or two high intensity, short duration thunderstorms. Even a small storm with little precipitation can produce dangerous flooding because the Saudi Arabian desert soil does not soak up water very easily. Dry wadis (ravines) can quickly turn into raging rivers during and after heavy rains. In the city, low points in the roadway can quickly fill with floodwaters trapping unsuspecting motorists.
 
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The Secret Knowledge of Water: Discovering the Essence of the American Desert by Craig Childs The "essence of the American desert," as the subtitle of Craig Childs's book has it, is water. A desert, by definition, lacks it, but when water does come, it comes in torrential, sometimes devastating abundance. "Most rain falling anywhere but the desert comes slow enough that it is swallowed by the soil without comment," he observes. "Desert rains, powerful and sporadic, tend to hit the ground, gather into floods, and are gone before the water can sink five inches into the ground." |
Saudi Arabian Trivia
With limited natural water resources, the country had no choice but to resort to well water and to the sea to provide its increasing population with the water they need. Saudi Arabia has 30 desalination plants located on the West and East coasts of the country and ground water is available from 18 aquifers with deep wells supplying water for municipal use, agriculture and industry.