U Maryland Study - Sahara Desert Has Grown By About 10% In Past 100 Years

Africa's Sahara Desert has grown 10 percent in nearly 100 years, according to a new study by scientists at the University of Maryland.

The Sahara, which is the world's largest warm-weather desert and roughly equal in size to the contiguous United States with 3.6 million square miles, has expanded by 11 percent to 18 percent depending on the season. The study was published Thursday in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate.

The researchers analyzed annual rainfall data recorded throughout Africa until 2013. When the average rainfall is less than 4 inches of rain per year or less, an area is considered a desert.

"The trends in Africa of hot summers getting hotter and rainy seasons drying out are linked with factors that include increasing greenhouse gases and aerosols in the atmosphere," Ming Cai, a program director in National Science Foundation's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funded the research, said in a press release. "These trends have a devastating effect on the lives of African people, who depend on agriculture-based economies."

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