Photo: Tiffany Crook
Photo: Sandra Kazbegi
The dirty yellow tint of the sky and snow is caused by Saharan dust suspended in the atmosphere and brought over by strong winds from the Sahara Desert.
The meteorological phenomenon wasn’t just limited to the mountains. The skies in the cities of Lyons and Grenoble in France turned a dark and threatening shade of orange over the weekend.
A picture of the dust crossing the Mediterranean to reach France over the weekend was tweeted by the country’s National Meteorological and Climate Service, with the caption, “Seen from space: A low pressure system on the Iberian Peninsula organises a powerful southerly flow which brings up sand from the #Sahara as far as France. Saharan lifts appear in yellowish on satellite image between Balearic Islands and Sardinia.”
🛰Vu de l’espace || Un système dépressionnaire sur péninsule ibérique organise un puissant flux de sud qui fait remonter du sable du #Sahara jusqu'en France. Remontées sahariennes apparaissent en jaunâtre sur image sat. entre Baléares et Sardaigne.
📸 METEOSAT11, 06/02, 12hUTC pic.twitter.com/jG6Y7Khs0M
— Météo-France (@meteofrance) February 6, 2021
Such sand plumes aren’t uncommon, but usually they blow across the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes, however, a particularly strong and southerly wind can funnel dust north to Europe, and can reach all the way to the United Kingdom. 