A heat wave that recently swept United States has nothing on Somalia’s years-long dry spell, as new space-based drought images show.

The satellite animation (above) depicts 16 weeks of soil moisture levels in the Horn of Africa, including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. The latter nation, which lies along the Horn’s eastern edge, hasn’t seen rain in two years and almost 80 percent of its livestock have perished as a result. An ongoing two-decades-long war and prolonged famine also haven’t helped.

Europe’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite gathered these images from 471 miles up. They reveal how agricultural regions in the south — normally wet from April through June — were baked by the dry spell.

Somalia’s wet season woes fit into a larger tapestry of shifting climates across the planet. When global soil moisture levels in 2010 are compared to a 20-year average (below), the extent to which regions are growing drier or wetter reveals itself.



Source: http://www.wired.com/