Snow in the Sahara

Unbelievable!  Sahara is  the hottest, driest place on the planet. The last thing one would expect is snow. That's a rare weather event ( the last time snow fell there was in 1979 -  it was first time in recorded weather history ), and therefore this is real, exciting news.

An amateur photographer by the name of Karim Bouchetata captured the snow on the red sand dunes (photo above) near the little algerian desert  town Ain Sefra, known as the Gateway to the desert . He had to do it quickly as the snow stayed only for about a day and then melted away (19 of December,2016).

There are some youtube videos about this Ain Sefra place in Algeria - an oasis located in the desert and near the Atlas mountains (see, for example, the video "Algerie,  cote d'Ain Sefra- Paysages").

The snow in the Sahara desert is one of the many occurrences of weather anomality  during the last two decades, which makes us wonder where do we go from here . What's going to happen next with our climate? We're quite helpless about it.  I don't call the situation warming  or cooling of the earth - it would be erroneous -  just  anomality of the weather.

Yungfrau - forever young and cool

Where I live, summers are very hot and humid, so I often try to escape the sticky reality by letting my imagination run freely to cool, icy places I once visited. My favourite in this category is the Yungfrau, in the Swiss Alps. The german word 'yungfrau' is translated as 'virgin'. Indeed, there's a virgin kind of beauty about this highest mountain peak in Europe; all white and impeccable as if untouched. ( Sorry for the poor color quality of the attached pictures- the snow should, of course, be white, not yellow).

When you reach the summit (by clog rail which runs inside the mountain tunnel,) you witness a stunning view: bright blue skies, white snow capped mountains, the sun shining from above (sunglasses - a must). You feel you're on the Top of the world ,not only on the top of Europe, and that's a terrific feeling. The Yungfrau range of mountains has in fact three giant peaks, but only the highest among them bears the name of Yungfrau , and it is below this peak that trains arrive from the nearby charming little town called Interlaken, a well-known resort in the area.

Yungfrau with its snow, ice, and glaciars is the perfect place to dream about in these torrid days.

Oh, dear God , please have mercy upon our souls and send us now some of that mountain blessed coolness, so that we can enjoy the outdoors , and give up air conditioning, indoors!