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The Sahara Desert - the world's hottest - has been hit by SNOW for only the second time in four decades.

Photographers have taken incredible pictures of 18 inches deep snow covering the sand in the small North African desert town of Ain Sefra after a freak winter storm yesterday.

The town had not seen snow for 37 years when it arrived this time last year - and locals were stunned when it began falling on the red sand dunes yesterday morning.

It comes as as much of the northern hemisphere sees record cold temperatures.

Snow started falling in the early hours of Sunday morning and it quickly began settling on the sand.

(Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY) (Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY) (Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY) (Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY) (Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY) (Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY)

Photographer Karim Bouchetata said: "We were really surprised when we woke up to see snow again. It stayed all day on Sunday and began melting at around 5pm."

Last year the town, known as "The Gateway to the Desert" saw deep snow shortly after Christmas and it caused chaos, with passengers stranded on buses after the roads became slippery and icy.

(Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY) (Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY) (Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY) (Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY)

Children made snowmen and even sledged on the sand dunes.

Before that, snow was last seen in Ain Sefra on February 18, 1979, when the snow storm lasted just half an hour.

A spokesman for the Met Office said this morning: "Cold air was pulled down south in to North Africa over the weekend as a result of high pressure over Europe.

(Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY) (Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY) (Image: GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY)

"The high pressure meant the cold weather extended further south than normal."

Ain Sefra is around 1000 metres above sea level and surrounded by the Atlas Mountains.

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.