There is snow in the Sahara, as seen in images captured through the years. This legendary desert saw only a few snowstorms during the last decades. And once with me there.

It was back in the late 70s when my parents were on a diplomatic mission to North Africa, and we got stuck in the Sahara Desert right when temperatures went below zero. Traveling the country, we were on the way from the Atlas Mountains to the southern provinces of Algeria when the storm caught us. Cold is not uncommon in the desert, the air is mostly dry and cool, with frequent temperature lows of 7F, but nothing like that happened until 1979—the exact time of my arrival. 

Such snowfalls in the Sahara have occurred more frequently during the last decade since 1979. However, such a severe storm was the first in the Sahara Desert in the 20th century. 

As far as I remember, no forecast predicted snow, as it was all of a sudden for all. I still need to find out if any data was helping to identify climate extremes in the region so that climatologists could rely on it. Back then, you wouldn’t hear of climate change as there was nothing like that, at least not a drastic environmental shift to confirm it. 

I was happy to spend my vacation in Africa. My parents and their mission so far away from home fulfilled my life. It was great to be with them in the comfort of their rented authentic house where I felt safe, like home, even though visible security matters didn't inspire confidence in me. I was a kid who had never heard the word no, though.

In a rapidly changing world, the most precious moments are those shared with your parents. Mine are both gone now—mother passed away from cancer just two years ago.

As I've been getting older, I've come to appreciate these seemingly small but meaningful moments shared with family, recalling those timepieces with parents teaching me life lessons in their own rules in a knowledgeable and never obscure manner despite my age. We played table games and tennis and always laughed, and my little sisters sought to develop their superior creative skills—both are PhDs now.

I had always been too reserved and didn't strive to develop great communication skills, but I did it within the family. Nothing close to social media made these moments more precious, contrasting the isolation of contemporary society.

But let me get back to the Sahara. We didn't have smartphones back then; otherwise, my memories would be more precise. Altogether, we were engaged in a more or less scary story worth remembering and retelling. But long story short here. We got into the epicenter on our way from the mountains—for almost an hour, we saw nothing on the road, which wasn't much а superior freeway back then. 

It was terrific looking at the snow falling, creating a thin white cover on red sand. The desert is vast, more than 3 million square miles, and I was sure it was storming everywhere. Zero precipitation makes it possible to come across with a bottle of water, and we had plenty. 

It was shocking to see snow falling even though it was melting away so fast. With such a high-pressure zone around the spot, I could hardly breathe and was all sweating, or maybe it was too hot in our car.

Since then, my childish Western perception of Africa as a continent with breathtaking landscapes drowning in sunlight has changed dramatically.