The most snow to fall in living memory is currently coating the desert sands of the Sahara.

A month after the largest hot desert on the planet experienced the first snowfall in nearly 40 years, the white powder has returned, and in greater volume.

A metre of snow fell in some parts of the desert Credit: ZINEDDINE HASHAS/GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY

Residents of Aïn Séfra, Algeria, were greeted this morning by a metre of snow, twice as much as has fallen in most ski resorts in the French Alps over the last week.

Snow fell here in December but before that it was 1979 Credit: ZINEDDINE HASHAS/GEOFF ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY

The snow has caused chaos in the town known as the Gateway to the Desert, with buses stranded on icy roads, while children have taken advantage of the flurry, building snowman and sledging down dunes.

Less snow fell in December Credit: Karim Bouchetata/Geoff Robinson Photography/Karim Bouchetata/Geoff Robinson Photography

Before last December it was in 1979 that Aïn Séfra, where the Atlas Mountains meet the desert, last saw snow.

How the desert town normally looks Credit: © Universal Images Group North America LLC / DeAgostini / Alamy Stock Photo/Universal Images Group North America LLC / DeAgostini / Alamy Stock Photo

Though the town is in the Sahara, its average January temperature is about 6C degrees, while in July the mercury regularly reaches 38C degrees.

Temperatures elsewhere in “the Greatest Desert”, which stretches across Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mali and Morocco, have previously passed 47C degrees.