An unusual early September cyclone drenched large parts of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, filling dry lakes and rivers. New satellite imagery from NASA shows the impact of the deluge.

Lakes appearing in the Sahara desert captured in satellite images after a cyclone dumped a years' worth of rain on northern Africa in just a few days.

The arid region sometimes develops lakes after heavy rain, hinting at how the desert may have once had a different climate.