Orange snow blankets Eastern Europe

No, the photos and videos haven’t been edited by the latest Instagram filter or otherwise digitally manipulated. Orange-tinted snow did blanket parts of Eastern Europe on Friday and over the weekend, creating eerie post-apocalyptic scenes and baffling people in countries such as Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania and Moldova, the BBC reported.

Documentation of the strange snow appeared all over social media, with some making jokes about “skiing on Mars,” according to CNN.

A snowboarder makes his way down a run covered with orange-colored snow. (slivi4/Instagram)

While orange snow seems unearthly, meteorologists said the phenomenon occurs about every five years and that this instance was caused by sand from storms in the Sahara mixing with snow and rain, according to the BBC.

Unlike past occurrences, however, the concentrations of sand are much higher this time, with people even complaining of getting it in their mouths, the BBC reported.

Skiers in Sochi, Russia, aren’t deterred by the orange snow. (margarita_alshina/Instagram)

In a satellite image from NASA taken Friday, the dust was visible as a light brown streak staining the white clouds above Eastern Europe, according to the Weather Channel.

Steven Keates, a meteorologist with the United Kingdom’s National Weather Service, known as the Met Office, told the Independent that sand can spread once it reaches the upper levels of the atmosphere.

“Looking at satellite imagery from [NASA], it shows a lot of sand and dust in the atmosphere drifting across the Mediterranean,” Keates said. “When it rains or snows, it drags down whatever is up there, if there is sand in the atmosphere.”

(Source: WP)

Snow falls in Sahara desert for third time in 40 years

Snow has fallen in the Sahara, covering desert dunes in a layer up to 40cm deep.

Snow started falling on the Algerian town of Ain Sefra in the early hours of Sunday morning, giving children an opportunity to race each other down the slopes. Rising temperatures meant it began to melt later in the day.

It is the third time in nearly 40 years the town, known as “The Gateway to the Desert”, has seen snowfall.

Snow in the Sahara is “unusual but not unheard of”, a spokeswoman for the Met Office told The Independent.

“It seems like the snowy pictures were taken across the higher areas in the north of the region, towards the Atlas regions, so it’s not surprising that the area would see some snow if the conditions were right.

“With the setup over Europe at the moment, which has given us cold weather over the weekend, a push southwards of cold air into that region and some sort of moisture would bring that snow.”

Ain Sefra, which was founded in 1881 as a French garrison town, sees average high temperatures of over 37C in summer and has seen record lows of -10.2C in winter.

(Source: Independent)