It is a truly eerie experience to see the sky in Athens turning into a deeper and deeper orange color on Tuesday afternoon as a thick cloud of Sahara dust covered not only Attica but the most pasts of Greece.
This is the colour of the sky over Athens right now, no filters used. Hello Saharan dust. #σκονη pic.twitter.com/ikDxZXzE9M
— Daphne Papadopoulou (@daphnenews) April 23, 2024
Athens sky in south suburbs around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, 2024.
Νότια Προάστια τώρα !!! 😱#σκονη #ατμοσφαιρα #mars #planet_mars pic.twitter.com/WnAVcmkQSU
— Μυστήριο Τρένο (@DimitrisGr65) April 23, 2024
The strong phenomenon with very high concentration of particles created a suffocating atmosphere and problems to citizens with respiratory problems.
In Kalamata and parts of Ilia, in southern Peloponnese, the mixture of Sahara dust and temperatures up to 32 degrees Celsius created a suffocating atmosphere earlier today.
At the same time, warm south-eastern winds have been blowing with intensity of 8 Beaufort in the Gulf of Messinia.
It is characteristic that from the beach of Kalamata, the area of Verga and the “Kalathi” mountain of Taygetos cannot be distinguished.
Sahara dust in Chania, Crete.
Crete and the Peloponnese are particularly affected by the wave of dust transport from the Sahara, while the concentrations are also high in Attica, as the Research Director of the Athens Observatory, Kostas Lagouvardos, told protothema.gr.
It is typical of the situation in Crete that yesterday, from 5.30 – 7.30 in the afternoon, concentrations of 300 micrograms of dust per cubic meter of air were recorded. Concentrations fell overnight to around 50 micrograms, and today after 2pm they began to rise rapidly. At 5pm, 430 micrograms were already being recorded and the trend continued to rise.
“From the night it will start to leave mainland Greece and from tomorrow at noon it will clear both the Peloponnese and Crete,” Lagouvardos added noting that this episode of African dust transport is expected to end tomorrow.
Never have we seen something like this! The birds seems to have interrupted their activity. Just in 10 min everything turned into a Mad Max scenery! #African #dust, #αφρικανικη_σκονη #σκονη pic.twitter.com/VChcXW1gP3
— Antikythera Bird Obs (@AntikythiraBird) April 23, 2024
According to director of the National Meteorological Service EMY, Thodoris Kolydas, the Sahara dust will start to recede from Wednesday morning and he described the cocktail of “dirty” dust with high temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius as “thirty-dirty”.
THIRTY-DIRTY
Στην Ελλάδα των θερμοκρασιακών αντιθέσεων έχουμε απ' όλους τους τύπους του καιρού. Από τους 10-15 °C στο Βορρά , έως τους 30°C (και βάλε) στο νότο.
Όσο για το "ντέρτυ" αυτό καλύπτει μεγάλο μέρος, λόγω σκόνης…😀 pic.twitter.com/Z2aXeGky6x— Theodoros Kolydas (@KolydasT) April 23, 2024
The phenomenon of Sahara dust has been occurring often in Greece mostly in the spring months in the last years, however, this horror film scenery today was one of the worse ones.
