Snow in Morocco

Snow is not the type of weather you first imagine when you think of Morocco. However, similar to the landscape of California, Morocco has coastline, plains and high mountains. When clouds hit the mountains, precipitation occurs!

The week of Feb 15, Ifrane, located in the Middle Atlas Mountains (5,460 ft. altitude), was hit with its first major snow storm. This is normal for the winter, but this year has been unseasonably warm and dry for the area.

The next snow was a blizzard on Feb 26, bringing over a foot of snow and high winds. Cars were stuck on the roads as people tried to leave and come into the area. Moroccan tourists flood into the small town of Ifrane to see the snow. The first snow brought 120,000 cars to this small town!

When the influx of traffic becomes too great, police will shut the roads. There are plows, however they cannot maneuver around cars that have been abandoned or stuck in the road. When we ventured out one night, we helped shovel several cars free from the snow as well as our own.

Cars and buses stuck for hours

Driving on the wrong side of the road since the other side was blocked

The residences across from school

School

Dogs exploring the snow

This was at 8am. Yes, we were in school. And yes, that is about 1 foot of snow!

That's what I call recess!