Snow covers parts of the SAHARA DESERT for the third time in 40 years as freak storm sees 16 INCHES fall in one day
Snow fell in small Saharan desert town of Ain Sefra, Algeria, in the early hours of Sunday morning
It is the third time in 40 years snow has fallen on the city, it was also spotted in 2016 and 2017
Locals noted up to 16 inches of snow in some areas of the desert
By JO RILEY
DAILYMAIL.COM
8 January 2018
Up to 16 inches of snow has fallen on an town in the Sahara desert after a freak winter storm hit the area on Sunday.
This is the third time in 37 years that the town of Ain Sefra in Algeria has seen snow cover the red sand dunes of the desert.
Snow started falling in the early hours of Sunday morning and it quickly began settling on the sand.
While the town saw an inch or two, the sand dunes on its outskirts were covered in snow.
Photographer Karim Bouchetata said: ‘We were really surprised when we woke up to see snow again. It stayed all day on Sunday and began melting at around 5pm.’
In 2016, the town known as ‘The Gateway to the Desert’ saw deep snow shortly after Christmas and it caused chaos, with passengers stranded on buses after the roads became slippery and icy.
Come January 2017, the town saw snowfall yet again, and children made snowmen and even sledged on the sand dunes.
Before that, snow was last seen in Ain Sefra on February 18, 1979, when the snow storm lasted just half an hour.
A spokesman for the Met Office said this morning: ‘Cold air was pulled down south in to North Africa over the weekend as a result of high pressure over Europe.
The Rest…HERE
