World's Hottest Desert Turns Into Winter Wonderland After Receiving Rare Snowfall

The Sahara Desert on the African continent is the largest sand desert in the world. For the citizens of nearby cities like Macalis, there is some relief from the intense heat of the world's largest hot desert.

The Sahara Desert covers most of Northern Africa and it has gone through shifts in temperature and moisture over the past few hundred thousands years.?

While it is a known fact that temperatures in deserts can drop dramatically overnight, that usually doesn't bring with it any ice or snow, at least partially because of the low levels of moisture.

According to the BBC Weather’s Nicky Berry on Wednesday, temperatures in Ain Sefra dropped below -2 degrees for the last three nights.

In January 2022, ice crystals covered the dunes of the Sahara , the hottest desert in the world, where temperatures of 58°C have already been recorded.

Snowfall blanketed the Sahara Desert as temperatures dropped below freezing overnight, creating surreal landscapes.

The dusting of snow is the fifth time in 42 years previous snowfalls have already fallen in the Sahara Desert in 1979, 2016, 2018 and 2021. But compared to previous falls, which reached up to 1 meter thick in 2016, this time the ice crystals have barely covered the Sahara desert.

The Sahara Desert covers most of North Africa and has undergone changes in temperature and humidity over the past hundreds of thousands of years. Although it is very dry today, it could turn green again in about 15,000 years. Snow and ice are unusual in desert regions but not completely unheard of.

In January 2022 and 2021, snow arrived in the Sahara and Saudi Arabia, but this is not the first time that these usually extremely hot spots have been covered in a white blanket.

Temperatures in the region generally range from 12°C in January, the coldest month, to over 40°C in July.