If you’re going on a trip to the Sahara (for whichever reason you’d consider sufficient to go to a 3.6 million square miles oven), you wouldn’t be packing snow gear, right? Well, apart from two days in known history, you’d be entirely accurate in that guess. The first time snow fell in the Sahara desert was back in February 1979, when LSD was all the craze on the black markets. The second time was good ol’ 2016, a year of many firsts.
I should probably specify, since the Sahara desert takes up much of North Africa. Both times the snow dropped in Algeria. While certainly being unexpected, the images taken by amateur photographer Karim Bouchetata are even more surreal than the phenomenon itself.
There’s something oddly satisfying about the mix of reds and whites. While the snow may have only lasted for about a day, the pictures will last forever. Or at least until the internet gets shut off. In case you’re planning a trip to Algeria and guessing that the snow will fall there every 37 years, these pictures were taken in the town of Ain Sefra. I mean, they call it a town, but it’s pretty obvious there’s next to nothing going on there.
Anyway, enjoy these pictures. They almost look like surrealist paintings (or an acid trip aforementioned LSD, but they’re very much real. Thanks for these, Mother Nature!
