Tourists head to Saudi Arabia's Tabuk as snow blankets mountains

JEDDAH: The mountains of Tabuk were capped in snow Thursday morning after a huge drop in temperature overnight. Videos of the storm, and of people celebrating the snowfall, circulated widely on social media, as well as clips of snow-covered camels relaxing before the sunrise.
There were excited comments from Tabuk residents, while those in other regions looked on in envy as the snow encased the mountaintops of Alan, Jabal Al-Lawz and Ad-Daher.
One Twitter user wrote: “What a wondrous sight, like something out of Europe. I’m not sure it’s even here.”

Another, Mohammed Al-Salem, expressed his sadness at being unable to enjoy the snowy mountain tops, saying: “Oh, my heart. Tabuk wins the best city in the winter award. I long to experience such weather.”
Sama Al-Kuwait wrote: “Such beauty in the midst of winter. We often go too far to seek snow, when snow has been close to home in Tabuk. I will surely visit after the pandemic.”

Every year, the snowfall brings tourists from across the Kingdom to Tabuk, and while the COVID-19 pandemic will mean fewer visitors than usual this year, some people still drove all the way from the UAE to capture the snow on camera, according to Al-Arabiya.

Others took to social media to educate people on the weather in various regions of the Kingdom.

Spokesman for the Kingdom’s Embassy in Washington, Fahad Nazer, wrote: “There is no one denying climate change, but it’s also not that rare for this region — Tabuk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia — to experience snow. Contrary to popular perception, not every region in the Kingdom is warm year-round.”
Meteorology experts said temperatures in the far north of the Kingdom are expected to drop even further in the near future, and authorities have issued extreme weather warnings in a number of areas across Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, the Eastern Province, Qassim, Hail, Tabuk, the Northern Borders region, Al-Baha, Asir, Jazan, Jawf and Najran.