Extraordinary Snowfall In The Desert

[cirrocumulus]

http://www.meteosottoceneri.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48&Itemid=54

[PersianPaladin]

http://www.meteosott...id=48&Itemid=54

Is that snow or partially-melted hail?

[Zenarcher]

It seems this isn't as unusual as you think,

Statistics show it snows once every 10 years in Namibia and this latest occurrence was caused by a massive cold front followed by a high pressure zone. This same front is causing havoc in South Africa with many coastal towns inundated from extreme rainfall.

I heard this time though it hit record low temperatures.

[Terminal Moraine]

Is that snow or partially-melted hail?

I'd say definitely snow. There's one shot of a sign with the partially melted snow sliding from the bottom of it; hail wouldn't do that as it wouldn't stick to the sign in the first place.

[lfcdude]

Its snow... reached -.7.8

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread714745/pg1

there's a good topic on it on another forum

[4wd]

I'm struggling to see why every discussion about this seems to assume it's some unheard of phenomena.

South Africa and neighbouring Namibia can expect brief wintry spells in their winter most years especially at higher elevations like in those pictures.

It seems all the silly hype about CO2 driven climate chaos has people ready to blame anything on global warming and therefore 'our fault'.

It's winter there and sometimes it can snow.

That's the story really - interesting to see nonetheless.

Edited June 13, 2011 by 4wd

[Evening thunder]

Interesting pictures there.

I agree 4wd it is silly and equally silly that every apparently 'unusual' (even if not too unusual) cold spell has people saying 'global warming can't be happening it snowed in Africa the other day' or something like that. Silly to link any single event hot or cold to GW but hopefully many people know that.

[J07]

Last year there was a very cold snap into South Africa during the World Cup IIRC.