In early 2021, Saudi Arabia was covered in snow. This certainly attracts attention, because the country that has a stretch of desert and hot temperatures is not a common area for snowfall.

The first snowfall occurred in Jabal al-Lawz or Mount Almond located in tabuk region on February 18, 2021. Social media (social media) immediately crowded with posts of a camel covered in snow.

Hussein Al-Qahtani, an official spokesman for Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Meteorology and Environmental Protection, said the weather in Tabuk was affected by polar waves. This region is even commonly accompanied by heavy snowfall in winter.

"We have noticed in recent years that the drop in temperatures has exceeded 8 degrees Celsius below zero in some regions," Hussein Al-Qahtani told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He explained that the snowfall that occurred at that time was only classified as light snowfall, not a snowstorm, but rather as light snowfall.

"So far we have not recorded a sharp drop in temperature and are not facing severe polar waves like in previous years," he added.

The Tabuk region, which is in the northwest of the country and borders Jordan, is geographically located at an altitude of 750 meters and is about 193 kilometers from the Red Sea.

The average daily highest temperature in the Tabuk region is at 22 degrees Celsius. The coldest time in the region usually occurs in January, with an average low temperature of 5 degrees Celsius and a top temperature reaching 18 degrees Celsius.

The Britannica.com report said winter in Saudi Arabia occurs from December to February and snowfall can occur in the southern highlands. The average temperature for the coldest months is around 74 °F (23 °C) in Jeddah, 58 °F (14 °C) in Riyadh, and 63 °F (17 °C) in Al-Dammām.

In January 2021, the Sahara Desert received snowfall for the first time in more than 50 years. Snow was seen across the country, but the biggest build-up occurred in the Aseer region, which lies south of Mecca along the Red Sea coast.