Photo: Sina Weibo

Videos of floodwaters flowing across the Taklimakan Desert in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and submerging desert highways began trending on Chinese social media platforms on Tuesday, sparking heated discussions online. 

Located deep inland, Xinjiang has a typical temperate continental climate with frequent droughts and low levels of precipitation. Data shows that the annual average precipitation in the Taklimakan Desert is less than 100 millimeters, while the annual average evaporation level is as high as around 3,000 millimeters, according to ts.cn. 

Circulating videos show floodwaters surging across a vast desert area, with vehicles struggling to wade through the water.

According to Lü Xinsheng, a meteorologist from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Meteorological Service, the flood was a mixed-type flood caused by the combination of glacier and snow meltwater due to prolonged high temperatures and recent frequent rainfall, ts.cn reported.

Lü explained that a high pressure front extended to the Taklimakan Desert in early- and mid-August, causing widespread high temperatures of 35 C and above in southern Xinjiang, with some areas exceeding 40 C. 

The continuously rising temperatures caused mountain glaciers and snow to melt, increasing the water inflow of tributaries in the Tarim River Basin. Some rivers reached or exceeded warning levels and sparked floods. 

In addition, the western part of southern Xinjiang has experienced frequent rainfall since August 19, with heavy rains occurring in parts of the mountainous areas. 

The rainwater has merged and flowed into the tributaries of the Tarim River, causing mixed-type floods in several tributaries of the Tarim River Basin, ts.cn reported. 

This isn't the first time the Taklimakan Desert has experienced flooding. 

In July 2021, floods affected an area of over 300 square kilometers in the desert, with embankments breached and power poles knocked over. During the summer of 2022, the main stream of the Tarim River and its tributaries flooded. Since July, the Tarim River has flooded multiple times, ts.cn reported. 

The local meteorological observatory in Xinjiang has forecast that a rainstorm will hit the western part of southern Xinjiang between Wednesday and Saturday. 

Global Times