Sometimes certain weather events can bring some unexpected things along with them. For instance when it gets hot outside, you may notice more spiders and house flies inside your home trying to escape the heat, but what about....SCORPIONS?!?!

Yes, you read that correctly. Let's shift our attention to a city names Aswan in Egypt that lies along the Nile River in the Southeastern portion of the country. Keep in mind when reading this that it rarely ever rains in Aswan as the city averages only 0.12in of rain a YEAR!

aswan2.jpg

On Friday, a strong thunderstorm with very heavy rainfall and hail moved over the city, causing flood waters to rise rapidly across the city. What these rising flood waters did was bring literal scorpions into the streets and peoples homes!!

scorpion noir du hoggar

scorpion noir du Sahara

Image courtesy: Scorpion Worlds

Tons of highly venomous scorpions, who typically burrow themselves under rocks and wood during the heat of the day were washed out due to the flooding and heavy rainfall. These scorpions were trying to get away from the floodwaters and with flat ground and not a lot of trees in the area to help them get higher ground, they ended up climbing into people's homes for safety.

According to Ehab Hanafy, undersecretary of the Health Ministry in Aswan, over 500 people were hospitalized from scorpion stings across Aswan. 

Accumulated rainfall from the GFS model estimated around 0.5-2.0" of rain ended up falling in Aswan over a 48-hour period.

aswan.png

Source: Pivotal Weather

Based on the fact they get just over 0.10"in of rain through an entire year, this means that possibly nearly 16x amount of the average yearly rainfall fell within Friday and Saturday. 

Cover photo courtesy of TravelForWildlife.com