Rare snow covers the Sahara desert

Snow and ice cover the sand in the Sahara Desert after the temperature here dropped to -2 degrees Celsius under the influence of a high-pressure cold air mass.

Snow falls on the dunes in the desert.

Photographer Karim Bouchetata took a series of pictures of snow and ice covering the town of Ain Sefra in northwestern Algeria on January 17. After just one night, the temperature here dropped to -2 degrees Celsius. The ice created many interesting shapes in the sand after the area suddenly snowed. This is the 5th time in 42 years the town of Ain Sefra is covered with white snow. The previous snowfalls were in 1979, 2016, 2018 and 2021.

The town of Ain Sefra, nicknamed the Gateway to the Desert, is located about 915 m above sea level, surrounded by the Atlas Mountains. The Sahara Desert occupies much of North Africa and has experienced many fluctuations in temperature and humidity over the past few hundred thousand years. Although the Sahara Desert is very arid today with temperatures up to 58 degrees Celsius, researchers predict that the desert may turn green again after 15,000 years.

This is the fifth time in 42 years that the Sahara desert has been covered with snow.

Last year, North Africa's temperatures were also extremely low during the summer and winter months. Ice and snow are unusual weather phenomena in the desert, but not unheard of. Desert temperatures can plummet overnight, but snowfall usually melts very early the next day.

In January of this year, in Algeria, a high-pressure cold air mass moved through the desert, causing temperatures to drop. Such anticyclones often reach Saudi Arabia as they move clockwise from Central Asia, gathering more moisture along the way and gradually cooling the moisture to form snow. The temperature in the town of Ain Sefra usually ranges from 12 degrees Celsius in January, the coldest month of the year, to nearly 40 degrees Celsius in July.