# Is it getting more rainy in Aswan? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 13, 2021, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302 "2021-11-13T20:54:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302/1 "2021-11-13T20:54:06Z")
This news story today - > **[Egypt: Hundreds stung by scorpions after deadly floods in Aswan](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-59274686)** > > The scorpions were forced into streets and homes in Aswan by storms that left three people dead. > Scorpions are regularly washed into the streets by heavy rain … seems to be at odds with internet results that say it very rarely rains in Aswan (1.4mm in total per year). Is it getting more rainy there? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302/2 "2021-11-13T22:48:49Z")
I don’t know much about Aswan, but I do know that rainstorms can be quite violent in deserts where they get very little overall rain. I realize that’s counterintuitive, but imagine if you got most of your rain over just a few days or a few hours. It’s apparently these torrents that are causing the scorpions to seek higher ground. I don’t think that means they are getting more overall rain in Aswan than they have in the past, although that may be the case because of global warming weather shifts. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302/3 "2021-11-13T23:48:35Z")
Also the storms can be quite localised. Get sufficient rain on steep hills to cause run off and you can end up with a raging torrent at the plains at the bottom which doesn’t count as rain. The very definition of the wadis which are a characteristic of the region. Would expect a fair bit of the desert life there burrow into the river beds there for access to water, only to get flushed out by a flash flood periodically. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/5p5FfzUDVoo/maxresdefault.jpg "Flash Flooding Wadi") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p5FfzUDVoo) > **[\[PDF\] Post Aswan High Dam flash floods in Egypt : Causes, consequences and...](https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Post-Aswan-High-Dam-flash-floods-in-Egypt-%3A-Causes%2C-Eliwa-%E6%9D%91%E7%94%B0/ac36eec91d43d2acf241d995fdd87c197664909b)** > > Flash floods become one of the most recent common forms of natural disaster in recent-day Egypt. These floods are made up of sudden, unexpected and heavy rains or a strong surge of water, which usually hit the steep sloped mountainous catchments and... ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2021, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302/4 "2021-11-14T01:34:24Z")
> Scorpions are regularly washed into the streets by heavy rain There is more than one way of reading that. You seem to be reading it as “there are regular heavy rains, and they wash down scorpions” but it probably means “when there is a heavy rain, scorpions are often washed down.” ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302/5 "2021-11-16T13:59:40Z")
Regularly and frequently aren’t synonyms. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302/6 "2021-11-16T19:42:51Z")
Yeah, they are. > **[Regularly synonyms | Best 73 synonyms for regularly](https://thesaurus.yourdictionary.com/regularly)** > > Synonyms for REGULARLY: frequently, consistently, usually, habitually, systematically, normally, repeatedly, conventionally, punctually, as a matter of course; Antonyms for REGULARLY: erratically, irregularly, unevenly. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302/7 "2021-11-16T19:57:48Z")
Story updated: > **[Egypt: Hundreds stung by scorpions after deadly floods in Aswan](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-59274686)** > > The scorpions were forced into streets and homes in Aswan by storms that left three people dead. Scorpion victims survived. Deaths were due to electrocution. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302/8 "2021-11-16T19:57:59Z")
That thesaurus is internally inconsistent. It says in the thesaurus part that frequently means “As a matter of usual practice”, but when you look at [the meanings it gives for frequently](https://www.yourdictionary.com/frequently), that meaning is nowhere to be seen. Frequently means it happens _often_. Regularly means it happens _consistently_. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302/9 "2021-11-16T22:57:15Z")
Regular (and regularly) had - and have - a meaning which is close to synonymous with ‘periodic.’ It has also acquired a meaning which is close to synonymous with ‘frequently and consistently.’ I don’t care for it either, but it’s a change that’s happened in English. I just say ‘periodic’ now when that’s the meaning I intend. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302/10 "2021-11-17T03:58:23Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Regularly and frequently aren’t synonyms Writers and editors aren’t what they used to be. Many publications would use them synomously. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-getting-more-rainy-in-aswan/954302/11 "2021-11-17T04:11:20Z")
One thing that struck me about Egypt was the total lack of any stormwater handling. Even major streets in Cairo had no attempt at drainage or what you might imagine as a gutter. It would sometimes mist a little on a cold morning, but actual rain just seemed to be not a thing that concerned anyone.