Saharan dust storm hovering over Western Europe

A massive dust storm originating in the Saharan Desert moved into Europe last week. The storm has so far reached the Spanish Canary Islands and the Iberian Peninsula, bringing hazy, orange skies. In Portugal, the Directorate-General of Health issued an air quality warning and recommended limiting time outdoors. In some of the affected areas, rain combined with dust is likely to cause orange-coloured “mud rain”.

The dust cloud engulfing the skies over Portugal is visible in this image acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 22 March 2024.

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service provides daily analyses and forecasts of worldwide long-range transport of atmospheric pollutants. More information is available here.