Sand, heat, sun: the Sahara already seems to be stored in a box. A layer of snow is enough to blur this familiar image. In January 2018, NASA dedicated a publication of its Earth Observatory to this unusual event in North Africa.
The phenomenon is described as rare, but not unprecedented. A localized snow event does not turn the entire Sahara into a winter landscape. He invites us to look at the place, the date and the extent actually observed rather than to imagine a continent uniformly covered in white.
It is this difference in scale that makes the image interesting. The contrast is real; generalization would be misleading. The presence of snow in part of the desert alone is also not enough to draw a conclusion on climate change. The extraordinary detail is already there: a landscape that we thought we knew could still present a completely different color.
What we know
Episode documented in January 2018; no claims of widespread snow, absolute record or annual frequency.
To go to the source
References consulted on September 21, 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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