NOS News•yesterday, 10:43 PM
A thick, yellow-orange blanket seemed to cover the south of Greece. At sunset the sky turned bright red. Such a large amount of Saharan dust as there was in the Greek air today does not occur often.
What Sahara dust is doing to Greece is not unusual. It also sometimes occurs in the Netherlands with a strong southerly current. But the south of Greece had to deal with particularly high concentrations of dust from North Africa.
It not only produces intriguing images; people can also be quite bothered by it. The very small dust particles can penetrate deep into the lungs. The hospitals in the city of Kalamata and on the island of Crete also noticed this, where more people than usual reported to the emergency room, especially with respiratory complaints.
The government had already warned about the dust and advised people with respiratory diseases or allergies not to go outside. It was also recommended to keep windows and doors closed and not to exercise outdoors.
Sandstorms in the Sahara can blow sand and dust high into the air. It floats there on the wind. The sand often settles quickly because it is too heavy to float for long. But the lighter dust particles can travel thousands of kilometers.
Dust isn’t the only thing blowing out of the Sahara. The heat is also moving: a temperature of almost 37 degrees was measured in western Crete today. The average temperature there around this time is about 22 degrees.
Tomorrow the wind will change, and then most of the dust and the worst heat should disappear from Greece.
Tags: lot Sahara dust Greece Apocalyptic
