From scorching heat to streets under water

One minute you’re fanning yourself in a brutal late-summer heatwave, the next you’re wading through ankle-deep water in the medina. That’s exactly what happened in Tunis on Thursday.

In a dramatic weather whiplash, the Tunisian capital was hammered by torrential rain and severe thunderstorms, forcing authorities to slam the brakes on daily life and suspend all classes in schools and universities.

It’s the classic North African climate shock — extreme heat one day, flash floods the next — and Tunisians are getting very used to it.

Picture it: In the medina, a UNESCO World Heritage maze that has stood for more than a millennium, shopkeepers lifting rugs and electrical goods off the floor as brown water surges past. Motorists trapped in La Goulette, buses ploughing through floodwater, parents stuck in gridlock trying to reach schools.

“It hasn’t stopped raining since last night,” Tunis resident Mostafa Riyahi told AFP during the last big flood event — a sentiment many Tunis residents echoed again yesterday.

This isn’t just an inconvenience. For families in low-lying homes, a flooded ground floor means ruined furniture, lost stock, and a night sleeping at a relative’s.

If this feels like déjà vu, it is. Tunisia is living a climate paradox.

1. The January trauma: In January this year, Tunisia recorded its heaviest rainfall since 1950 — in over 70 years. Flooding killed at least four people in Moknine, Monastir governorate, where two people were swept away, and a woman drowned in her home, according to civil defence. At the time, classes were suspended in 15 of the country’s 24 governorates.

2. Seven years of drought: Ironically, that deluge came after a seven-year drought worsened by climate change, with dam reserves at critical lows. The country swings violently from water scarcity to too much water at once.

3. The heat factor: This summer has been marked by prolonged heatwaves across North Africa. Hotter air holds about 7% more moisture per degree Celsius — so when storms do form, they dump far more rain, faster. Hail, like that seen in Tunis this week, is a tell-tale sign of highly unstable air.

Why it matters?

This is bigger than a missed day of school.

For families: Disrupted education, transport chaos and property damage hit the poorest hardest.

For the country: Tunisia’s infrastructure — especially in the old city and fast-growing suburbs — was not built for this intensity of rainfall. Repeated red alerts for the same regions point to systemic drainage and urban planning gaps.

For the climate story: The World Weather Attribution pattern is clear: the Mediterranean is becoming a hotspot for “weather whiplash” — longer, hotter droughts punctuated by more intense, deadly downpours.

What is a red alert and why suspend schools?

Tunisia’s INM uses a colour-coded system. Red means life-threatening weather is happening or imminent. Suspending schools is a precaution because:

* Children walking or on school buses are most vulnerable to flash floods

* It reduces traffic, freeing roads for emergency services

* It stops schools in low-lying areas from becoming trapped

It’s not overreaction — in January, fast-moving floods swept debris through residential streets.

What next?

* Stay vigilant: Authorities have urged residents to avoid flood-prone wadis and underpasses, follow INM updates, and not attempt to drive through standing water.

* Short-term forecast: Heavy rain and strong winds are expected to continue in the north-east, so further class suspensions cannot be ruled out.

* Longer-term: Expect a renewed push for better stormwater management in Greater Tunis, and for the government to link drought and flood planning — you cannot manage one without the other.

As ever, cbinews.tv will keep you across the alerts as they come in.

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