Saharan dust storms bring risk of ‘blood rain’ and burning skies to southern Europe

Massive Saharan dust storm brings danger of ‘blood rain’ and burning skies to southern Europe

By Claire Cameron edited by Andrea Thompson

A heavy rain is going to fall. Dust plumes, whipped up by the wind over the Sahara desert, move over Western Europe. This annual phenomenon – known in Spanish as “La Calima,” which literally translates to “the haze” – means that a plume of dust and sand is threatening an area covering Spain, Portugal and France.

“Blood rain” – essentially falling red mud created by the mixing of sand and precipitation – is expected, as are hazardous air conditions and, of course, a red haze. The conditions may last for days, according to some forecasts. The rain, despite its name, is not harmful in itself. But the public health authorities encourage the elderly, children and people with respiratory problems to limit their time outdoors to avoid inhaling the dust.

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Every year, tens of millions of tons of particulate matter from the Sahara are swept into the air and spread across the globe, with some dust even reaching America.

This cloud appears to be driven by a local weather phenomenon known as DANA (an acronym for “isolated depression at high levels” in Spanish), which is an isolated high-altitude depression that forms when cold air meets warm air over the Mediterranean, causing warmer air to rise rapidly and form dense clouds. When a DANA and La Calima combined, they can create severe and even dangerous weather conditions over the region.

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