"The greatest weather catastrophe in earth history—that’s a good way to describe the Flood. The Flood caused radical changes in the land, seas, and atmosphere, the weather would never be the same. In fact, it took centuries before the climate settled into the relative stability we see today. The lesson? Our earth has still not fully recovered from the Flood!
Most people envision Noah and his family stepping off the Ark into a warm and sunny world. They imagine balmy breezes and the fragrant aroma of plants and trees just beginning to bloom. The end of the catastrophic, worldwide Flood must have been a dramatic relief to Noah’s family, but it doesn’t mean they were greeted by a gentle spring day.
As a result of the Flood the earth was out of balance, and it would take some time to set itself right. Because the atmosphere, the ocean, and the earth’s crust were not yet in equilibrium, the weather probably took many years to reach the shaky stability we experience today.
Just imagine. The surface of the earth was torn apart by the events of the Flood, and no forests or
grasslands graced the barren landscape. The trees had been destroyed or buried under tons of sediment. The desolate land probably reflected much more light than it does today (a phenomenon known as albedo), causing colder temperatures over the continents.
For several hundred years after the Flood it’s likely that even larger hurricanes than we experience today, called hypercanes, formed in both hemispheres, lashing the continents all the way from near the equator half way to the poles. Winds up to 500 miles per hour (805 km/h) and rainfall up to 50 inches per hour (127 cm/h) may have eroded loose sediments on the continents and continued to scour the landscape in muddy torrents, year after year, as plants tried to reestablish themselves.
The entire Middle East, including the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, Israel, Egypt, and the Sahara in North Africa show evidence that they were once well-watered, green, and fertile, possibly for hundreds of years after the Genesis Flood. This region continued to become drier as the jet stream moved slowly northward at the end of the Ice Age, establishing a new climate. Today a desert extends completely around the globe about 30° latitude in both hemispheres, caused by warm, dry air that consistently sinks equatorward of the jet stream.
Evidence for a once wetter climate in the Middle East comes not only from scriptural support (And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Genesis 13:10) but also from many forms of paleoclimatological data. Beneath the sands of the Sahara we find remnants of river valleys where water once flowed, and we find petroglyphs scratched onto rocky outcrops in North Africa, depicting herds of large mammals and alligators in grassy plains where it is now too hot and dry for these lush environments." AIG
"At the end of the last Ice Age, the Sahara Desert was just as dry and uninviting as it is today. But sandwiched between two periods of extreme dryness were a few millennia of plentiful rainfall and lush vegetation.
During these few thousand years, prehistoric humans left the congested Nile Valley and established settlements around rain pools, green valleys, and rivers." LiveScience
During Noah’s Flood the earth experienced unparalleled catastrophes that released an incredible amount of heat. Continents separated, massive volcanoes erupted, mountains rose and fell, continents eroded away, and hot magma bubbled up from the mantle to the earth’s surface.
This heat was likely thoroughly mixed and stored in the oceans for hundreds of years after the Flood. Volcanic dust continued to spew into the atmosphere for many years, reducing the sun’s heating. Mountains rose, changing the topography and causing massive landslides in their wake. Earthquakes of extreme magnitude frequently shook the earth’s crust, slowly declining in frequency and intensity.
More clouds likely covered the earth immediately after the Flood, reflecting solar radiation back into space. Phytoplankton grew rapidly in the ocean because of the warm water and high concentrations of nutrients. This bloom probably reduced the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, greatly contributing to global cooling. Consequently, the temperatures over the continents were probably much colder than we experience today.
The temperature contrast between the oceans and the continents would have produced highly energetic storms. We know today that warm oceans form intense hurricanes that devastate any forests or manmade structures that get in their way when they hit land. For several hundred years after the Flood it’s likely that even larger hurricanes than we experience today, called hypercanes, formed in both hemispheres, lashing the continents all the way from near the equator half way to the poles. Winds up to 500 miles per hour (805 km/h) and rainfall up to 50 inches per hour (127 cm/h) may have eroded loose sediments on the continents and continued to scour the landscape in muddy torrents, year after year, as plants tried to reestablish themselves.
Noah seems to have been providentially protected from the extremes of the post-Flood storminess. If the Ark landed on the mountains of Ararat in eastern Turkey, he would not likely have experienced hypercanes near the shores or the grip of the Ice Age nearer the poles. On the mountains of Ararat he would probably have experienced cold temperatures, snow, and high winds above the 15,000-foot (4.6-km) level soon after leaving the Ark, but surely he would have descended to lower elevations where temperatures were warmer.
When Noah and his descendants settled at lower elevations to the north of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, they would have found a climate that is more temperate and rainy than what occurs today. Crops, including grapes, would have grown readily in the fertile sediments and volcanic materials left by the Flood.
Evidence for a once wetter climate in the Middle East comes not only from scriptural support (And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Genesis 13:10) but also from many forms of paleoclimatological data. Beneath the sands of the Sahara we find remnants of river valleys where water once flowed, and we find petroglyphs scratched onto rocky outcrops in North Africa, depicting herds of large mammals and alligators in grassy plains where it is now too hot and dry for these lush environments." AIG
"At the end of the last Ice Age, the Sahara Desert was just as dry and uninviting as it is today. But sandwiched between two periods of extreme dryness were a few millennia of plentiful rainfall and lush vegetation.
During these few thousand years, prehistoric humans left the congested Nile Valley and established settlements around rain pools, green valleys, and rivers." LiveScience
