Snow has fallen in the Sahara Desert in north-western Algeria as temperatures plummeted to below freezing.
For children from nearby towns such as Mekalis, it was a welcome relief from the scorching heat of the world’s largest hot desert.
The ice crystals formed stunning patterns in the desert sands.
Dunes – ideal for sliding – were also partially covered by the snow and ice.
The snow in the town of Ain Sefra – known as the gateway to the Sahara Desert – was only a light dusting.
Temperatures in the town, which is surrounded by the Atlas mountains, dropped below -2 for the last three nights but this is only a few degrees colder than average at this time of year, says BBC Weather’s Nicky Berry.
The snow was not a complete surprise – there were also falls in 2021, 2018 and 2017.
But the snow on the red sand dunes in December 2016 did come as a shock. Residents of Ain Sefra said that it was the first time since 1979 they had seen snow, suggesting the phenomenon is now becoming more common.
This weather is not for the meek. To be fair, most people go from their heated car garage, to the heated car, to the heated underground garage at work and then to the heated work office. However, people that have to work outside and the homeless have a very harsh reality.
After unseasonably mild temperatures, Manitoba including Winnipeg city, are in the crosshairs of a big winter storm. That is what the crystal ball watching weather gurus say.
It has been way above normal temperatures in October and early November.
According to this weather expert Manitobans better batten the hatches and hunker down.
As hurricane Ida pounds Louisiana and other areas of the southeast some background.
As we enter hurricane season, when there is a greater chance of more powerful storms developing in the Atlantic, here is a guide to how deadly storms form, how they are measured and why they happen where they do.
Hurricanes are the biggest and most violent storms on the planet. Every year, between June and November they hit the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern coast of the United States, sometimes leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
In the Pacific Ocean, they are known as cyclones. In the Indian Ocean and southern Pacific, they are known as typhoons. They are all tropical storms, but they are only called hurricanes in the north Atlantic and north-eastern Pacific.
Where do hurricanes start?
Most hurricanes that form in the Atlantic are the result of an atmospheric phenomenon known as a tropical wave.
The wave starts as a type of atmospheric trough that creates an area of relatively low air pressure – usually in western Africa, in mid-July.
If the conditions are right for it to develop, the low pressure starts to move west, with the help of the trade winds or easterlies.
When it reaches the Atlantic, the tropical wave has the potential to become a hurricane – but for this to happen it needs enough energy in the form of heat and wind.
In fact, it needs a deep layer of warm water, with a surface water temperature above 27C.
It also needs the right winds – horizontally swirling winds to concentrate the storm and a weak vertical wind shear rising from the surface of the sea.
If the wind shear changes too much as it rises, it can disrupt the flow of heat and humidity needed to create the hurricane.
The final ingredient is a concentration of rain clouds and high humidity in the area.
This all needs to happen in the right place – generally between 10 and 30 degrees latitude in the northern hemisphere, where the rotation of the Earth helps the winds converge and rise in the area of low pressure.
When a tropical wave encounters all these elements, they all start to interact over an area between 50km (31 miles) and 100km wide.
“The movement of the tropical wave is a trigger for the storm,” says Jorge Zaval Hidalgo, general co-ordinator of Mexico’s National Weather Service.
What does a hurricane look like?
The storm is the catalyst – and the dance of heat, air and water begins.
The area of low pressure cools the humid, warm air rising from the ocean, which fills the clouds.
The condensation of this air releases heat, which lowers the pressure even more, drawing more humidity from the ocean and the storm builds.
The winds converge and rise within the area of low pressure, spinning counter clockwise, giving the hurricane its trademark shape.
While the storm becomes more powerful, the eye of the hurricane – the central area about 30-60km wide on average – remains relatively calm.
Around it, rises the eye wall of dense clouds and most intense winds.
Beyond that are the spiral bands of cloud, where there is the most rain.
The wind speeds are what determine the moment at which we can call this phenomenon a hurricane.
At its birth, it is a tropical depression. As it gathers strength, it becomes a tropical storm. When speeds reach more than 118km an hour, it is a hurricane.
How do you compare hurricanes?
However, hurricanes can be classified in five categories depending on the sustained wind speeds. In the Atlantic, the Saffir-Simpson wind scale is used to measure their destructive power.
One hurricane’s winds can produce about half as much energy as the electrical generating capacity of the entire world, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
However, it is not the winds that cause the most destruction and loss of life, but the storm surge and flooding caused by the hurricane’s rain.
In the United States, for example, the storm surge caused by tropical cyclones in the Atlantic were responsible for nearly half of hurricane-related deaths between 1963 and 2012, according to the American Meteorological Society.
The level of destruction caused by a hurricane is also going to depend on other circumstances, such as the speed at which it hits, the terrain and local infrastructure in the affected area.
“The damage or danger associated with a tropical cyclone does not necessarily correspond to its category. For example, the highest level storm will not necessarily mean more rain,” Mr Hidalgo told the BBC.
What started out as a tornado touching down turned into a water spout as the twister moved onto Lake Winnipeg. The sightings were near Winnipeg Beach and Matlock Beach on the west side of the lake.
Lenticular clouds (Altocumulus lenticularis in Latin) are stationary clouds that form in the troposphere, typically in perpendicular alignment to the wind direction. They are often comparable in appearance to a lens or saucer.
There are three main types of lenticular clouds: altocumulus standing lenticular (ACSL), stratocumulus standing lenticular (SCSL), and cirrocumulus standing lenticular (CCSL), varying in altitude above the ground. Because of their unique appearance, they have been suggested as an explanation for some unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings.
