Sahara desert dust paints European landscapes reddish-brown. Viral pics and videos

The tint was caused due to strong winds in Africa that led to sand sweeping across Europe before it hit the mountain ranges and settled onto the snow.

European landscapes turned into a shade of reddish-brown after a massive plume of the Sahara Desert dust painted the region in a colour similar to that of planet Mars. Air-quality dropped as did solar-power production as a result of the phenomenon.

The orange tint was caused due to strong winds in Africa that led to sand sweeping across Europe before it hit the mountain ranges and settled onto the snow.

“We saw air quality values in the affected regions drop significantly. The impact of the Saharan dust clouds is clearly visible for affected cities, such as, for example, Barcelona or Marseille,” Mark Parrington, a scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, told Bloomberg.

World Meteorological Organization shared pictures in a post on Twitter and said, “When snow becomes sand. #Saharan dust has transformed the landscape in parts of Europe. CameraJura mountains on border between Switzerland and France from WMO’s Lu Ren.”

Several other users flooded Twitter with pictures and videos that soon went viral. “It’s raining sand! In contrast with the snow cover of two weeks ago, this morning I woke up to a reddish sky and a blanket of red powder. Southern winds brought over the Alps high clouds filled with Sahara desert sand. A vivid reminder that, on this Planet, everything is connected,” one of the posts said.

Another user said, “Sirocco wind brings us pink Sahara dust over the lake of Geneva. Mountains look like sand dunes, with orange snow.”

See the pictures and videos here:

An orange hue was also seen in the Chamonix Mont-Blanc Valley since the air was filled with sand dust from the Sahara.