Flash floods in the Sahara: a case study for the 28 January 2013 flood in Qena, Egypt

Figures & data

Figure 1. Location and elevation data of the study area.

Figure 2. (a) Climograms show a combination of average monthly temperature and (b) total rainfall and length of the dry season after Walter-Leith.

Table 1. Historical flash floods in Qena.

Date	Rainfall [mm] in Qena	Affected villages/areas	Victims/damages
23 December 1955	6	Qena City	Destroyed many houses, roads and flooded cultivated lands
26 November 1968	Light	Klaheen Village	Displaced 2165 persons
		Shaykhiya Village	Displaced 94 persons
5 and 6 March 1975	2	Karm Omran, Al Ashraf Al Sharqiya Villages	Displaced 8 families
13 March 1975		El Hamydat Village	Displaced 68 persons
April 1975	0	Karm Omran Village	Displaced 289 persons
16 October 1979	7.8*	Hegaza Bahry Village	Displaced 2850 persons
May 1979	12	Hegaza Qebly Village
30 December 1980	1.1	Vast areas of the region	Destroyed 23 houses and 370 ha
April 1983	0	Alklahin Village and neighbours	Destroyed many houses, roads and flooded cultivated lands
April 1984	0	Khozam and Hegaza Villages	Killed 13 persons
20 April 1985	0.1	Wadi Banat Bary and neighbours	Destroyed Khozam Dam and killed 32 persons
8 October 1994	2*	Nag Salem, Alklahin, Hela, Hegaza, Abu Manaa, Abdel Qader Villages	Killed one person, displaced 6856 families, 1915 ha flooded, and destroyed the main highway (Qena-Safaga and Qeft- El Qusier).
2 November 1994	1.8
13 November 1997	0	Upper Egypt: Aswan, Sohag, Asyut, Minya, Qena	Killed 23 persons, thousands of hectares of land flooded and 260 houses destroyed
30 December 2010	8.9	Nag Salem and Attyat Bdhna Villages	Destroyed 9 houses, Qena-Safga highway and Cairo Aswan highway
28 January 2013	15	Alklahin and Karm Omran Villages	Broke down electricity and major roads for several hours, flooded cultivated lands

*Data reported by the weather station 624050 in Luxur.

Figure 3. Study scheme (modified after Moawad 2013).

Table 2. Statistical analysis, estimated rainfall and model efficiency.

Stations	Robs [mm]	Rsati [mm]	Diff.	Avg.	Std. (σ)	Resti [mm]	ME
Qena	15	5.94	9.06	10.47	4.53	13.12	0.95
Luxur	14.99	4.59	10.4	9.79	5.20	7.46	0.15
El Qusier	5.08	5.43	−0.35	5.26	0.18	10.75	−9.75
Alexandria	2.03	4	−1.97	3.02	0.99	5.59	0.45
Dabaa	0.76	0.95	−0.19	0.86	0.10	1.78	0.97
Arish	3.05	0.32	−2.73	1.69	1.37	2.21	0.95

Figure 4. Daily development of storms over the Sahara from 23 to 28 January 2013.

Figure 5. Infrared Eumetsat images show 6-hours development of the jet streams over the Sahara from 27 January 2012 (23:00 pm UTC) to 28 January 2013 (02:00 am UTC).

Figure 6. (a) Cumulative rainfall (R_cum) [mm] and (b) volume of rainfall (R_vol) [m³] from 23 to 30 January 2013.

Figure 7. (a) Rain strength for 6 hours of storm duration and (b) actual rain strength for 2 hours of storm duration on 28 January 06:00 am [mm hr⁻¹].

Figure 8. Hydrological soil groups (HSG), adjusted curve number (CN _I) [unitless] and surface infiltration.

Table 3. Hydrological estimations.

Wadi	Area [km^2]	∑Rcum [mm]	∑ Rvol [m^3]	∑Qsur [mm]	∑Qvol [m^3]	∑Tlos [mm]
Qena	15,700	32 × 10^6	79.9 × 10^9	26 × 10^6	65 × 10^6	6 × 10^6
El Matuli	7600	3.6 × 10^6	9 × 10^9	4.7 × 10^5	1.2 × 10^6	3.1 × 10^6
Total	23,300	35.6 × 10^6	88.9 × 10^9	26.5 × 10^6	66.2 × 10^6	9.1 × 10^6

Figure 9. (a) Estimated surface runoff (Q_sur) [mm] and (b) runoff volume (Q_vol) [m³].

Moawad BM. 2013. Analysis of the flash flood occurred on 18 January 2010 in wadi El Arish, Egypt (a case study). Geomatics, Nat Hazards Risk. 4(3):254–274.

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