Freakish Weather Plunges Sahara Desert Town In 15 Inches Of Snow For The Third Time In 40 Years

5Some photos are from the Atlas regions

According to the met office, quite a number of spectacular photos are of the Atlas regions of the Sahara. The Atlas Mountains mark the Atlas Sahara or the northern most edge of the great desert. Thus with the right conditions, it isn’t entirely impossible for snow to fall.

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6Snow all around

A met office spokesman said, “It seems like the snowy pictures were taken across the higher areas in the north of the region, towards the Atlas regions, so it’s not surprising that the area would see some snow if the conditions were right.”. However proving the man wrong was images of snow in town areas with kids playing in the blanket that enveloped the town and adults wandering across the nearby dunes to marvel at the sight.

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715 degrees below normal

Because of the extremely cold weather in the northern hemisphere especially over the weekend, cold air pushing southwards into the region of Algerian Sahara may have also brought cold moisture and snow. However on the days that Ain Sefra received snow both in 2016 and last Sunday, the temperature recorded 15 degrees below normal.

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8Rare snowfall

Cold moisture-laden winds were caused by low pressure at high altitudes and which passed over the region. It forced air to rapidly rise and cool creating the exceptionally rare snowfall.

Image source: www.washingtonpost.com