Cape Town – Snow has fallen in the Sahara Desert in north-western Algeria as temperatures plummeted to below freezing.
According to international reports, snow fell in the Saharan town of Ain Sefra in Algeria for the fifth time in 42 years as temperatures dropped to very low temperatures.
Ain Sefra sits about 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) above sea level and is surrounded by the Atlas Mountains, near the Algerian-Moroccan border, according to the website LiveScience.com
The Sahara Desert is more commonly known for its hot and dry climate, making the snowfall a very rare occurrence.
Temperatures in the town often reach 35 degrees Celsius in July and August.
Overnight, the mercury in the Algerian town is currently plummeting to -2℃, the UK’s Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.
The snowfall has left incredible patterns across dunes of the Sahara Desert after temperatures plummeted below zero, local media reported.
The dusting of snow is the fifth such occurrence in 42 years that the town has seen snow, with previous occurrences in 1979, 2016, 2018 and 2021, according to the Daily Mail report.
The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, stretching more than 3.3 million square miles (8.6 million square kilometres) across northern Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea.
According to NASA, the Sahara is much more likely to see snowfall at higher altitudes, such as in the Atlas Mountains, following the 2018 snowfall, which was visible from space, LiveScience.com reports.
ANA