Sahara Desert Gets Snowfall, Rare Stunning Photos Goes Viral

The internet has gone crazy over photographs of the snow-covered Sahara Desert in north-eastern Algeria. Post the snowfall earlier within the month, temperatures in the harshest desert within Algeria’s Naama province, located in the northern portion of the Sahara and near the Moroccan boundary, dropped to below freezing. The photographs of magnificent ice crystal patterns in the red dunes have gone viral on the internet.

Ain Sefra, which is regarded as the gateway to the Sahara Desert, received a thin covering of snow. Temperatures within Ain Sefra have been below -2 for the last three nights, as per BBC Weather’s Nicky Berry. He stated that the temperature was just a few degrees below normal for this year.

This is the fifth time in 42 years! The Sahara Desert has been blanketed in snow. Within the Sahara Desert, an unusual natural occurrence was discovered. This extraordinary occurrence has only happened three times in the last 37 years and the fifth time in 42 years! near the Algerian village of Ain Sefra.

The traditional red sand dunes that reach as far as the eye could see were blanketed in white. This occurs simultaneously as similarly severe weather in other regions around the world. The bitterly cold winter storm Grayson continues to batter the east coast of the United States, while Sydney, Australia, swelters in the warmest temperatures in nearly 80 years, reaching 116.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

The cold air was drawn down into northern Africa and the Sahara Desert due to high pressures over Europe. Earlier Sunday morning, a cloud of cold air soared 3,280 feet to the altitude of Ain Sefra, a town encircled by the Atlas Mountains, and snow began to fall. The snow didn’t last long, though, as temperatures soared to 42°F by late afternoon. Only three snow events have occurred in the Sahara Desert village of Ain Sefra in the last 37 years, with the last two years seeing snowfall (1979, 2016, and 2017).