Sahara dust incoming
Saharan dust can cause ‘blood rain’ over parts of Europe on Tuesday and Wednesday. The dust is being blown northbound along with unusually warm air.
Car washes in parts of the United Kingdom, West-France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden can look forward to a busy couple of days if the predictions of the Danish weather Institute DMI become true.
According to them, the airstream currently traveling northbound contains dust and small sand particles from the Sahara. When raindrops fall through this air, some of the dust is washed out and ends up on the ground. Or on cars.
When the rain has evaporated, it can leave behind patches of very fine sand particles, which can have a reddish or brownish hue.
Warm weather
The dust blew up to us from West Africa on the edge of a high pressure system that has moved from the Iberian Peninsula and across Central Europe.
Due to its origin over the Sahara, the air is very warm, and on its way up over Southwest and Western Europe and then Northwest Europe, it has produced remarkably warm weather.
In the British Isles, a new heat record for January was set with 19.9 degrees in northern Scotland, and in Norway, 18.7 degrees were measured just before midnight between Sunday and Monday in Tafjord near Ålesund. This is just 0.3 degrees away from the January record in Norway.
See the predicted trajectory of the dust cloud here:
Also read:
