Full disclosure: the author of this article has never seen snow in person, due to a life lived in the notoriously un-snowy cities of Adelaide and Melbourne. However, even with that distinct lack of first-hand experience, it is apparent there’s something very, very screwy with recent snowfalls in south-west Russia.
The former Winter Olympics hub of Sochi experienced insanely unusual snow over the weekend bearing a striking orange hue, effectively turning entire mountainsides into something you’d usually see in top-notch science fiction.
Skiers and snowboarders managed to make the most of the vibrant powder, filming themselves careening down the colourful slopes.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgvxtenFMsH/?taken-by=slivi4
That otherworldly tinge is thought to have been caused by a massive sandstorm which tore across the Sahara Desert, before sweeping up across the Mediterranean and towards Sochi proper.
Steven Keates of the UK’s Met Office – essentially the British equivalent to our own BOM – said “looking at satellite imagery from NASA, it shows a lot of sand and dust in the atmosphere drifting across the Mediterranean.
“When it rains or snows, it drags down whatever is up there, if there is sand in the atmosphere.”
The pretty rare event doesn’t appear to be stopping folks from hurtling down the slopes, and hopefully they don’t stop sharing these eerie images, either.
