Scalding Sahara turns snowy for Christmas

The Sahara can scald at more than 50 degree Celsius. Spread in more than 9 million square kilometres, the world’s largest hot desert covers most of North Africa. However, a white Christmas has greeted the locals with a freak and short snowfall arriving after almost four decades. Amateur photographer Karim Bouchetata says he took incredible pictures of snow covering the sand in the small desert town of Ain Sefra, Algeria, on December 19.

It is the second time that a rare sprinkling of snow occurred. The last time snow was reportedly seen in Ain Sefra, known as ‘The Gateway to the Desert’, where the Atla mountains meet the Sahara Desert, was on February 18, 1979, when the snow storm lasted just half-an-hour, according to The Telegraph.

According to LiveScience, snowfall on the sand dunes is incredibly rare. It is a more common occurrence on Saharan mountain ranges. “On February 18, 1979, low altitude areas of the Sahara desert recorded their first snowfall in living memory,” the site reports. “Snow fell in spots of Southern Algeria, where a half-hour snowstorm stopped traffic.”

“Everyone was stunned to see snow falling in the dessert. It is such a rare occurrence. It looked amazing as the snow settled on the sand and made a great set of photos,” Mr Bouchetata said, according to British newspapers. In his images, a thin layer of snow rests on deep orange dunes, where he said it stayed for about a day, and forms whirling patterns where the slopes are too steep for it to settle. Mr Bouchetata was lucky because he “the snow stayed for about a day and has now melted away”.

The desert is one of the hottest and driest areas of the world although it is expected to become green again in at least 15,000 years. The Sahara touches many African nations, including Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mali and Morocco. Snow falling on the Saharan mountain ranges is very rare, let alone on the sandy dunes of the continent’s biggest desert.