Yup, it snowed in the Sahara, the hottest desert in the world.

Thanks to an atmospheric pattern spanning the entire northern hemisphere, a freak flurry of snow covered parts of the desert with up to 39cm on Sunday, reports Washington Post.

The same cold air that “enabled the snow to fall came from the same cold-air outbreak we saw in the eastern United States” – simply because the winds blow from west to east, so the air over the United States eventually winds up in northern Africa:

So, when it snows in Morocco this weekend — where is that cold air coming from? From North America — Eastern Canada & the Northeast USA. The cold air pools from the Arctic blasts maintain their integrity 1-2 miles above the surface heading across the open Atlantic. pic.twitter.com/WvJQ4ZNlU7

— Ryan Maue | weather.us (@RyanMaue) January 3, 2018

Ta-da!

The result? Snow for the third time in 40 years near the town of Ain Sefra in Algeria.

The rare snowfall seen on Sunday followed a similar incident that happened around the same time in 2017 and before that in 1979, when a 30-minute snowstorm hit the area.

Take a look at Sunday’s blanket from above:

And from the ground:

WATCH: Snow reaches the Sahara, the hottest desert in the world https://t.co/pJfF6mVMy3 via @ReutersTV pic.twitter.com/SHTz7fwzkD

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) January 9, 2018

A post shared by Jose Manuel Anaya (@joseradiotv) on Jan 9, 2018 at 11:01am PST

It’s going to be interesting to see how global warming affects the rest of the world’s climate.

“But if it’s global warming, why’s it snowing?”, cries out Donald Trump.

[source:theverge]