In the immortal words of Band Aid ( however you experience about the song ): “ There wo n’t be blow in Africa this Christmas sentence ” . Well , that ’s not rigorously straight .
On December 19 , C. P. Snow fell on the edge of the Sahara desert , throw the blood-red sandy dune a pretty smattering of the white stuff for the first time in 37 year .
The world was alerted to this event by amateur photographer Karim Bouchetata , who posted his picture onFacebook , usher the snow overlay the sands circumvent the Algerian town of Ain Sefra . Ain Sefra is locate between the Atlas Mountains and the northerly edge of the Sahara , around 1,000 meters ( 3,300 feet ) above ocean layer , and is known as the “ gateway to the desert ” .
“ Everyone was KO’d to see Charles Percy Snow lessen in the desert ; it is such a rare occurrence , ” Mr Bouchetatasaid . “ It looked awing as the snow settled on the grit and made a great stage set of exposure . The snow stay for about a day and has now melt away . ”
Of course , Africa does in fact have snow . Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is magnificently top by a white cap , while in the Atlas Mountains just 72 kilometre ( 45 mile ) from Marrakech , Oukaimeden has the unbelievable purity of being Africa ’s high-pitched ski holiday resort at 3,200 meters ( 10,500 feet ) .
But see as the last recorded Baron Snow of Leicester in the Sahara was 1979 , it ’s still exciting .
In fact , NASA ’s Earth Observatory has released anatural - colour photoof the snowfall in the desert from quad . Taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus on the Landsat 7 satellite , the image show the snow on the ground near the Morocco / Algeria borderline , southwest of Ain Sefra .
NASA has also give away orbiter images of the Saharan Atlas range in December for the last four years , taken by their Aqua and Terra orbiter , to demonstrate how unusual this issue is .
The false - color figure are rendered in infrared , shortwave infrared , and seeable red wavelength , with the C. P. Snow show as a lustrous blue - viridity .
So if you ’re daydream of a white Christmas this year , however unlikely , you might still get your wish .
December observation in the Sahara for the last four class . MODIS / NASA
