The Sahara Desert, the world’s hottest has been hit by snow for only the second time in four decades.

The Sahara Desert, the world’s hottest has been hit by snow for only the second time in four decades.

Photographers have taken staggering pictures of 18-inch profound snow covering the sand in the little North African leave town of Ain Sefra after a monstrosity winter storm. The town had not seen snow for a long time when it arrived this time a year ago — and local people were staggered when it started falling on the red sand hills on Sunday morning. It comes as a great part of the northern half of the globe sees record icy temperatures. Snow began falling in the early hours of Sunday and it rapidly started settling on the sand. Picture taker Karim Bouchetata stated: "We were extremely astonished when we woke up to see snow once more. It remained throughout the day on Sunday and started liquefying at around 5pm."

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A year ago, the town, known as "The Gateway to the Desert," saw profound snow not long after Christmas and it caused tumult, with travelers stranded on transports after the streets ended up noticeably dangerous and cold. Youngsters made snowmen and even sledged on the sand rises. Prior to that, snow was most recently seen in Ain Sefra on February 18, 1979, when the snow storm kept going simply thirty minutes.

The Sahara Desert covers most of Northern Africa and it has gone through shifts in temperature and moisture over the past few hundred thousand years. Although the Sahara is very dry today, it is expected to become green again in about 15,000 years.