I love to shovel snow. No, I’m serious. I really enjoy it. My goal has always been to get the driveway and sidewalk completely clean after a snowfall. So I start by removing as much snow as possible. Then I take a metal scraper out and run it over any places where the snow has been pressed down, whether by feet or car tires or whatever. Once that’s done, I bevel the snow on the edge of the driveway so it’s all nice and even. It takes a while, but the results are worth it.
I write all that as though it still happens. It doesn’t. I’m no longer allowed to shovel snow. The surgeon that fixed my back last October put shoveling at the top of the list of no-nos. So now the neighbors tackle it with their snow blowers or my wife takes care of it. I watch from inside the house.
The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world. Well, technically it’s not because scientists consider the Arctic and Antarctica to be larger deserts. I don’t know how they’re deserts, but there are a ton of things I don’t know. Anyways, the Sahara is about as large as the continental United States, and it’s one of the hottest places on earth, with an average temperature approaching 90°F. If ever there was a place that it wouldn’t snow, it would be in these vast three-and-a-half million North African square miles.
Oh, but it has snowed in the Sahara. In January of 2012, the desert got snow. But it’s pretty rare. In fact, in my digging around, I could only find two instances when snowfall was recorded: last year and February 18, 1979.
That first snowfall took Algerians by complete surprise, even though it lasted but half an hour. And it probably snarled traffic and closed schools, despite the fact that it was gone before sundown. The really good thing is that the sand trucks probably didn’t have far to go to fill up. I wonder if the kids knew to have a snowball fight, or make a snowman, or snow angels…I hope so.
Hi Joel,
Read your article on ‘Snow in the Sahara 2012’. Is this correct.
Kind regards,
Jack