Dust and sand storms turned the sky red on three continents this week — and the cause is the source of the sand.
These videos out of Greece and Libya show a dust storm crossing the Mediterranean Sea and turning the sky an ominous shade of red on April 1.
Recent dust storms have caused an apocalyptic red sky in Australia, Africa and Greece. While it’s not unusual for dust storms to create a yellow or orange sky, this deep red color is specific to the regions where the dust originates.
A large dust storm in Western Australia related to Severe Cyclone Narelle’s fourth and final landfall on March 27 provided the first red sky videos of the last week.
Three days later, a massive dust storm, or haboob, swept across the Sahara Desert from western Algeria into Mauritania, Morocco, Western Sahara and the Canary Islands on March 30. The dust and sand storm stretched for more than 1,000 miles. While no red sky was reported, the sand was orange-colored in ground videos showing the approaching wall of sand.
A large haboob was seen sweeping across the Sahara in western Algeria on March 30. It was caught on satellite and on the ground in the town of Tindouf.
On April 1, another large dust storm moved from Libya across the Mediterranean Sea to coat the island of Crete in Greece with dust and created an apocalyptic red sky again. From weather satellites, the dust was indicated in a yellow color, but on the ground, webcams and eyewitness reports showed orange and even red sky.
The same dust storm also caused red sky in Egypt on April 2 as it drifted eastward.
“The dust storms from Algeria, Crete and Egypt are all related to winds produced by Storm Erminio, which has been slowly drifting eastward across Europe this week,” Lead International Forecaster Jason Nicolls said.
“The reason specifically for the red sky is that Saharan dust is rich in iron, which results in the reddish hue,” Nicholls added.
In Australia, it was the same culprit.
“The sand in northwestern Australia is also rich in iron, with the bulk of iron ore production in Australia being in Western Australia,” Nicholls explained.
The current dust cloud will impact parts of the Middle East Friday and Saturday but will probably not be as concentrated, Nicholls said, as Erminio weakens, gradually cutting off the flow of Saharan dust.