Photographer Captures Images Of Snow Blankets Covering The Saharan Desert

By Ammar Haziq  •  18 Jan 2021 in News

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It’s common to see many parts of the world covered with snow in January, however, the last place anyone would look for a snowman is in the sand dunes of Africa and the Middle East.

This month, the Saharan desert is covered in snow blankets as temperatures dipped below freezing and meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, residents and foreigners gathered at the snowy Aseer region to see the snowy sights as temperatures dropped to -2C.

Photographer Karim Bouchetta captured beautiful images of the small Algerian town of Ain Sefra, near the Morroccan border. Sheep can be found chilling on ice-covered dunes as temperatures dipped to -3C.

Known as “The Gateway to the Desert”, Ain Sefra is around 1,000 metres above sea level and is surrounded by hills and towering sand dunes, nestled in the Atlas Mountains.

In 2018, the small town of Ain Sefra experienced a snowstorm that coated the sand dunes with snow, and the last time the phenomenon occurred was in 1979.

According to MailOnline, the Sahara Desert has gone through climate shifts for the past few hundred thousand years and is still very dry now, but the desert is expected to be green again in about 15,000 years.

Nature, amirite?