Climate graphic of the week: Saharan dust storm swirls across Europe

Skies throughout southwestern Europe turned orange this week as an distinctive Saharan mud episode blanketed the area and the mud moved northwards to succeed in so far as the UK, Denmark and Russia.

Concentrations of particulate matter have been exceptionally excessive. As the big plume travelled throughout the Iberian peninsula, a pointy rise was recorded in inhalable particles of as much as 10 microns in diameter (PM10), in extra of the 50 micrograms per cubic metre that’s thought-about protected by the World Well being Group.

The knowledge from the Copernicus Ambiance Monitoring Service confirmed degraded air high quality throughout giant components of Spain, Portugal and France associated to the Saharan mud transport. The Balearic authorities’s Ambiance Service additionally suggested the general public to restrict bodily actions open air on Tuesday and Wednesday due to the excessive mud focus.

Saharan mud episodes are frequent within the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, notably in spring.

In 2021, an early mud occasion gave the snow-capped mountains of the Alps an orange tinge.

In January this yr, the yr’s first “Calimas” — mud storms within the Canary Islands area originating within the Sahara desert — unfold northwards so far as Iceland.

One other ongoing occasion began earlier this month, with mud travelling throughout Cape Verde and over the Atlantic to the Caribbean and South America.

Saharan mud offers an estimated 22,000 tons of phosphorus, a necessary nutrient, to the Amazon rainforest annually.

Some research predict that local weather change will lead to much more intense Saharan mud storms sooner or later, which may have an effect on public well being due to decreased air high quality.

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