WINTER WEATHER Updated Feb. 11, 2020 3:06 PM
Protesters halted in the streets of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, on Tuesday morning to take in a rare spectacle — snowfall in the city for the first time in 12 years.
The last time snow fell in the city was 2008, which Al Jazeera reports was more like slush, and it was the first time in 100 years that the city had experienced snow.
Al Jazeera further reported that weather extremes in Iraq have been commonplace in recent years, manifesting in the form of water shortages, heavy rain that destroyed homes and crops and extreme heat that sparked wildfires.
While snow inside the city limits is a rare phenomenon, northern Iraq does receive snow in the winter months, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls.
A protester walks and tosses a snowball during anti-government protests, in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Feb.11, 2020. Snow fell across the Iraqi capital Baghdad for the first time in a decade on Tuesday as morning temperatures uncharacteristically hovered around freezing. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Nicholls explained that the north has higher elevations than Baghdad and the southern part of the country, making it more susceptible to snowfall.
He said the city is "flatter" and "drier" than the more mountainous parts of the country that regularly receive snow, and he compared the dry climate to that of interior Southern California.
The snowy situation was "fairly rare," Nicholls said.
The reason this rarity occurred, he said, is due to cold air from western Russia traveling in the upper levels of the atmosphere and making its way to the city.
He said the city likely received 1-2 inches of snowfall, and it occurred very briefly in the morning before sunrise. Tuesday night's low was expected to plummet to 27 degrees Fahrenheit, well below the normal low of 42 F.
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Iraqi children play in the snow in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Ali Abdul Hassan)
By Sunday, the temperature in Baghdad is predicted to reach above 70 F again, climbing above the normal high temperature of 65 F.
“Thank God it is snowing this morning,” one protester, Aymen Ahmed, told the Associated Press. "The atmosphere is beautiful ... the people are very happy because this is the first time snow falls in Iraq.”
The Associated Press reports that over 500 people have died in anti-government protests in Baghdad after months of unrest. Protesters stopped during the snow, however, to brush the accumulation off their sit-in tents, take selfies and make snowballs.
They reported the snow had mostly melted by the middle of the day.
“It was a beautiful moment,” another protester by the name of Mariam told the Associated Press. “Now life goes back to normal."
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