Drought ends in disastrous rains

All across the northern third of Africa the rains continue to fall. Normally dry lands are awash from Mauritania to Ehtiopia. We're used to hearing of drought in the Sudan, but floods? Think of a Katrina that just keeps coming. And it's all related to unusual weather patterns which aparently surprised the local governments. Sound familiar?

Nobody's able to say this is part of any larger pattern, of course. But some warming projections have been telling us to expect weather extremes and surprises. Flooding along the fringes of the Sahara counts undeer the surprise category.

That's the CIA's official map of Africa.