Snow in Baghdad for first time in decades

Although the white flakes quickly dissolved into grey puddles, they brought an emotion rarely expressed in this desert capital – delight.

"For the first time in my life I saw a snow-rain like this falling in Baghdad," said Mohammed Abdul-Hussein, 63.

"When I was young, I heard from my father that such rain had fallen in the early 40s on the outskirts of northern Baghdad. But snow falling in such a magnificent scene was beyond my imagination."

Traffic policeman Murtadha Fadhil hailed the snow "a new sign of the new Iraq", adding: "It's a sign of hope. We hope Iraqis will purify their hearts and politicians will work for the prosperity of all Iraqis."

After nearly five years of war, Baghdad residents thought they'd pretty much seen it all. But as muezzins were calling the faithful to prayer, this was something certifiably new.

Snow is common in the mountainous Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, but residents of the capital and surrounding areas could remember only hail – and that occasionally.

This past week has been unusually cold and blustery, with overnight temperatures more than 10F below normal.

Fawzi Karim, a 40-year-old father of five who runs a small restaurant six miles south-east of Baghdad, said: "I asked my mother, who is 80, whether she'd ever seen snow in Iraq before, and her answer was no."

Talib Haider, a 19-year-old student, said: "A friend of mine called me at 8am to wake me up and tell me that the sky is raining snow. I rushed quickly to the balcony to see a very beautiful scene."

For a couple of hours, a city where mortar shells routinely zoom across the Tigris river to the Green Zone became one big White Zone – and there were no reports of bloodshed during the snowstorm.