Episode description

The Sahara Desert has been experiencing unusually heavy rainfall due to an extratropical cyclone, causing flash floods in Morocco. We hear from Moshe Armon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A 485-million-year temperature record of Earth reveals Phanerozoic climate variability. Brian Huber of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC tells us more.

And Mary Lewis of Reading University discusses new research looking into what puberty was like for our ancestors towards the end of the last ice age. Teenagers from 25,000 years ago went through similar puberty stages as modern-day adolescents.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Production co-ordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis

(Photo: Moroccan municipal workers and members of Auxiliary Forces help drain a road in a flooded neighbourhood in the city of Ouarzazate. Credit: Abderahim Elbcir/AFP/Getty Images)