Unbelievable Images Show Snow Falling in the Hottest Desert in North America. Many people expressed their shock, stating that this was the first time in their lives they had seen snow in this desert. What caused this phenomenon?
When the first images of the hottest desert in North America covered in white snow were posted online, many netizens assumed that they were computer-generated images.
Because the Sonoran Desert, also known as Desierto de Altar, is famous for its dry landscape and extremely hot and arid conditions.
Spanning over 310,000 km2, the Sonoran Desert is located in the states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur in Northwestern Mexico, and part of the Southwestern United States, including Arizona and California. In both countries (the U.S. and Mexico), the Sonoran is considered the hottest desert, with summer temperatures often reaching 48°C and rarely cooling down.
But now that has changed; snow has fallen in the Sonoran Desert.
Snow covers the hottest desert in North America. (Photo: Jack Dykinga/ Nature Picture Library).
The reason is believed to be a strong snowstorm that swept through Southern California and Arizona. This is a rare and sudden weather phenomenon that led to many parts of California, including the mountains in Los Angeles, experiencing the first snowstorm warning since 1989. This type of weather may be partly related to the final phases of the La Niña phenomenon, which scientists have stated ended on March 9.
The major storm also “visited” the Sonoran Desert, causing many areas of the desert to receive snow accumulation of up to 10 cm.
A tourist also captured snow images in the Sonoran Desert. (Photo: C.A. Griffin).
Due to the climatic characteristics of the Sonoran Desert, the snow here only lasted about 4 hours before melting, but Jack Dykinga, a photographer who has passionately photographed this desert since 1976, managed to capture it. Dykinga told NewScientist that it has not snowed in these states for 10 years, let alone in the desert itself. Meteorologists even described the snow in the Sonoran Desert as a “once-in-a-generation” event.
Normally, the Sonoran Desert is very dry and hot. (Photo: Saguaro National Park).
Netizens found the images of snow covering the Sonoran Desert to be beautiful and impressive; however, many also expressed concern about the increasing frequency of unexpected weather changes in recent years, with extreme weather phenomena making weather forecasting increasingly difficult.
