Several posts on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube, claimed that snow had fallen in parts of Nigeria, including Jos, Lagos, Enugu, Ikorodu and Ijebu Ode.
A post published on June 16, 2025, by Alegu Ifeanyi Kingsley, who now uses the name Comedic Memes, claimed: “Snow fell this morning in the Northern and Southern Regions of Nigeria. A strong cold front has hit many parts of Nigeria.”
The post gathered over 600 combined reactions and shares. While many commenters dismissed it as satire, others debated its authenticity, revealing the power of viral disinformation to mislead.
A 30-second video on Alegu’s Facebook page claimed snowfall in Enugu. Other Facebook users pushed similar narratives, including claims of “snowfall” in Jos, Plateau State, and Ikorodu in Lagos.
One particularly popular post by Peters Olaniyi Olusegun, which claimed “snow in Ikorodu,” gained more than 48,000 reactions and over half a million shares. In a follow-up video, the same user claimed snow had reached Ijebu Ode.
These posts were not isolated. Similar claims appeared across multiple social media platforms, often accompanied by manipulated or misattributed visuals.
Reverse image search traced the visuals to Australia
One viral image of two women posing in snow while holding a Nigerian flag was traced to a February 2024 post by the British Army Bobsleigh Team. The image was not taken in Nigeria but in Innsbruck, Australia, where members of the Nigerian Bobsleigh Team were training for international competitions.
AI-generated and deepfake videos flagged
A TikTok account (@Johnnymontage) shared a clip of Lagos covered in snow, captioned:“POV: Waking up to Lagos snowing on Monday morning is wild.”
The clip, when analysed with Hive Moderation, an AI content detection tool, scored 99.4% for deepfake content. Other similar videos across Instagram and YouTube were found to be AI-generated or digitally manipulated, with no source attribution or disclaimers.
Misrepresentation of hail as snow
The weather event in Nigeria that comes closest to snow is hail. It happens mostly in Jos, the capital of Plateau State. Hail is made up of small balls of ice that fall from the sky during heavy rain or during thunderstorms. While it may look like snow, it is not the same thing.
This phenomenon, while rare, is not new to Jos and does not resemble snowfall. Hail falls briefly and melts quickly. It also forms differently, often during intense convective storms rather than through layered atmospheric freezing.
Snow versus hail: Why people get confused
Both snow and hail involve ice, but they are formed differently and look different.
Snow appears as soft, fluffy flakes that fall slowly and stick to surfaces. It requires cold surface and cloud-level temperatures.
Hail, by contrast, falls as hard balls of ice, usually during thunderstorms, and forms in cumulonimbus clouds through strong updrafts.
The confusion often arises in areas like Jos where hailstorms are sometimes witnessed. During the harmattan season, mist or fog can also be mistaken for snow by those unfamiliar with weather patterns.
Nigeria’s weather pattern
Nigeria’s climate ranges from humid in the south to arid in the north, with three main zones: tropical monsoon, savannah, and Sahel. Rainfall decreases from south to north, while temperatures remain consistently warm year-round, averaging 26.9°C. The rainy season typically runs from April to October across much of the country.
Why snowfall is impossible in Nigeria
Dr. Gloria Okafor, a hydro-climatologist and lecturer at Nigeria Maritime University Nigeria, explained to CheckClimate Africa that for snow to form “temperatures must remain at or below 0°C (32°F) from the ground to the upper atmosphere”. She added that “the atmosphere must support ice crystal formation and accumulation” and there must be “sufficient moisture and vertical cloud development under cold conditions”.
The climate scientist said: “Nigeria is in the tropics, dominated by the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The country lacks polar air masses and the sub-zero atmospheric profiles needed to generate snow.”
Even in relatively cool areas like Jos, average annual temperatures range between 21°C and 27°C. The coldest temperature ever officially recorded there was 6.7°C, and only briefly, according to a 2020 Daily Trust report. No part of Nigeria has ever reported the sustained freezing conditions required for natural snowfall.
African countries where it snows
Credible reports have clearly outlined the African countries where snowfall occurs—and Nigeria is not among them. A BBC article published on June 10, 2025, confirmed that heavy snow had recently fallen in parts of South Africa, where winter snow is a regular seasonal event between June and August, with temperatures often dropping below 0°C.
Other African countries known for experiencing snow include Morocco, Lesotho, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Algeria—typically due to their high altitudes or mountainous terrain. Nigeria, with its tropical climate, does not meet the conditions required for snowfall.
Weather education is key
Okafor warns that without basic weather literacy, false claims like these will continue to spread, especially in the age of AI-generated content.
“If snow had truly fallen in Lagos, Enugu, or Jos, it would have been on the front page of every Nigerian newspaper. NiMet, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, has never forecast or confirmed snowfall.
“We need to integrate weather education into schools. Citizens should learn how climate systems work, and how to verify weather-related claims.”
Misreporting weather events can distort public understanding of climate science, especially in an era where trust in information is already under threat.
Verdict
The social media claim that snowfall occurred in Nigeria is false.
Verified images, videos and expert analysis confirm the claims are misleading and scientifically implausible. No credible meteorological agency or mainstream media has confirmed snowfall anywhere in Nigeria.
Snow has never fallen in Nigeria under natural atmospheric conditions. The claims circulating online are based on AI-generated videos, misinterpreted hailstorms, and images taken outside the country.
Nigeria’s geographical location and climate make snowfall physically implausible. While extreme weather events linked to climate change are increasingly visible across Africa, snowfall in Nigeria remains a scientific impossibility for now.
