"For the first time in history, Saudi Arabia has experienced snow. With heavy rain and hailstorms, some parts of the Al-Jouf region of Saudi Arabia were blanketed in a layer of white. History says the region never saw snowfall. The citizens of the region saw snowfall for the first time," read a Bengali-language Facebook post shared on November 8, 2024.

The post also shared two pictures, with one showing a desert blanketed in white and snow piling up on the humps of camels can be seen in the other.

Image

Screenshot of the false post

The false claim surfaced after the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on November 2, 2024 that heavy rains "accompanied by significant amounts of hail" have lashed various parts of the Al-Jouf region (archived link).

Some international media outlets also reported historic snowfall in the Al-Jouf region (archived links here and here).

Similar claims were made elsewhere on Facebook.

However, there have been reports of snow in Saudi Arabia before the false posts surfaced, and the pictures in the posts are not linked to the snowfall in Al-Jouf.

Unrelated pictures

A reverse image search found a photo showing a scene similar to the first picture uploaded to X on November 3, 2024 -- days before the false claim surfaced (archived link).

"Snapshots from the Hail-Rafha road," the post's caption read.

Hamad al Saloom, a local government employee who took the picture, told AFP that it was taken in the region around Hail -- more than 290 kilometres (180...

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