Snow in the Sahara for the first time in 39 years

Normally, when we talk about snow we refer to places such as the poles or, without going any further, to the high altitude areas of the Iberian Peninsula. But, if it is already strange to us to think that in a place like the Mediterranean coast they can dawn with the white landscape, I am not even telling you what one might think if that happened Sahara desert.

As well. Sometimes we forget that the unimaginable can also become reality. This time, the lucky ones have been the inhabitants of Ain Sefra, a city belonging to Algeria that has seen how the orange sand of the desert has been covered with white snow.

The date was Sunday, January 7, 2018. The Algerian meteorological service issued a snow alert for that weekend in the western part of the country, an alert that undoubtedly must have attracted a lot of attention to all those who were there, not in vain, it is not a place prone to snowfall. However, Sunday came true in the city of Ain Sefra, which is about a thousand meters above sea level and has an average January temperature of 12,4 degrees Celsius.

It doesn't rain much there either: with an average annual rainfall of 169mm of water per square meter, it is very rare for snow to fall. But the photos, which were taken by Zinnadine Hashas, ​​the local photographer, leave no room for doubt.

10 to 15 centimeters of snow fell thanks to a current of cold spiral air that came from the Mediterranean Sea. This has not happened since February 1979, so it was 39 years since they had been able to enjoy one of the warmest snow-covered deserts in the world.

What do you think of these photos? Surely they must have enjoyed the moment very much.


Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: Miguel Ángel Gatón
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.