On January 7,2018, miracle happened. Snow fell in one of the hottest desert on earth, blanketing the sahara desert north of Algeria’s city of Ain Sefra.
It seems unbelievable, but true! Ain Sefra, a desert town in Algeria, also known as the ‘Gateway to the Sahara’ – where the Atla mountains meet the Sahara Desert – received snowfall. While some reports said that parts of the desert was covered with up to 16 inches of snow, a report in CNN said that the town officially reported less than one inch of snow.
According to The Washington Post, The freak flurry covered parts of the desert with up to 15 inches of snow on Sunday. Local photographers and satellites high above caught the creamsicle-coloured scene on their camera.
Such pictures have gone viral last year too! When the Snow sightings in the Sahara Desert had mesmerised people around the world. Reports also suggest that before that, it snowed in Sahara way back in the month of February in 1979. During the winter, we usually see cold air very far north, and warm air very far south, Kaplan says. But sometimes, he says, “The build up of warm air in the south and cold air in the north gets so extreme that the pattern will break down.”
“The cold pool of air coupled with precipitation from the surface storm led to precipitation falling as snow instead of rain. The same feature responsible for the snow over the Sahara brought the heavy snow to the Alps earlier this week,” Nicholls said.
The deserts of Saudi Arabia also received snowfall a few days ago. The official news outlet, Saudi Press Agency posted pictures of the snow-laden geography.
