Photographs of France showed orange skies above layers of snow as the sandy Sahara wind, known as sirocco, made its way through Europe weeks earlier than expected.
While images of the surreal scenes flooded social media on Saturday, the French are quite used to the annual phenomenon: the sand wind is “not extremely rare,” But this is “exceptional” which is so early in the year, Le Parisien wrote. Sirocco usually arrives in April and leads to an increase in temperatures as it passes.
The south and southeast of France are reportedly the most affected so far, but orange skies are also expected to spread across the rest of the country on Saturday.
A puissant flux de sud va mettre en place vendredi et samedi, donnant des températures printanières plus faisant aussi remonter an important concentration of sahariennes poussières. Conseil, answered avant de laver votre voiture! Des pluies sableuses sont probables samedi! pic.twitter.com/DJLU3tVGaS
– Lyon Météo (@ LyonMeteo69) February 4, 2021
Social media users flocked to Twitter to post pictures of the sky, with some of the most impressive photos showing the desert aura above snowy landscapes.
Formidable remontée #sable du sahara ce matin à #dijon. Selon @skironforecast avec 2800 mgr of poussières par m2, our avions la même concentration of sable qu’au Chad auj at 10:00 UTC 🤗🏜 pic.twitter.com/Kz0ygjgiF2
– Marie et l’économie (@MorlotMarie) February 6, 2021
The videos even showed that some ski slopes have turned into “martian landscapes” while the sand covered the ice and snow.
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The photos also showed parts of Switzerland affected by the sand.
Meteorologist Paul Marquis told France Bleu that the arrival of the sirocco in early February instead of April is “proof” climate change.
The wind is not at all bad, however, with the exit saying that the sand “nourishes the soil” and is “very good news” for “vegetable gardens”.
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