Snow falls in Sahara Desert

If you think the picture is fake then let us tell you this is a real picture of snow on Sahara Desert. Snow fell on the small Algerian town of Ain Safra for only the third time in four decades, with 40cm covering the sand after a freak storm recently.

People were stunned when it began falling on the red dunes and began settling. Photographer Karim Bouchetata said: “We were really surprised when we woke up to see snow again. It stayed all day and began melting at around 5pm.”

Last year the town, known as “The Gateway to the Desert” saw deep snow shortly after Christmas and it caused chaos, with passengers stranded on buses after the roads became slippery and icy. Children made snowmen and even sledged on the sand dunes. Before that, snow was last seen in Ain Sefra on February 18, 1979, when the snow storm lasted just half an hour.

A spokesman for the Met Office said: “Cold air was pulled down south in to North Africa over the weekend as a result of high pressure over Europe. The high pressure meant the cold weather extended further south than normal.” Ain Sefra is around 1000 metres above sea level and surrounded by the Atlas Mountains.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 27th, 2018