In Dubai, UAE, the largest snowdome in the world has opened. Complete with an indoor ski slope, it has to stay at -2C while temperature outside exceeds +40C in summer. Its cost is 272 million US dollars.And here I am in Southern Ontario, where it is snowing outside as I type this, and wondering why would anyone want snow when they have warm weather?

For the first time in living memory, UAE sees snow fall. Normally known for temperatures of 50+ C in summer, one would not associate "snow" and "UAE" in once sentence. However, the amazing thing did happen. You can read what AFP reported, as well as what BBC reported. Both have pictures.Although a relative said that Alexandria got snow 2 years ago, it was a mistranslation.

Background

I visited Paris on business, spending some 5 days or so there.

Although I studied several years of French, languages, like many other things, suffer from atrophy by disuse. Therefore, my conversational skills were not that great.