A huge amount of sand from the Sahara has blanketed the Swiss sky since Friday, dramatically reducing visibility and giving daylight a yellowish tint to much of the country.
“The arrival of #sand from the #Sahara leads to a very clear decrease in sunshine and visibility. There is also an increase in the concentrations of fine particles”, underlines the Swiss meteorological service MétéoSwiss in a message to X.
As sand accumulates below 3000 meters, air quality has deteriorated significantly, from the shores of Lake Geneva to the rest of the country.
AirCHeck, the app launched by the cantons to provide real-time data on air quality in Switzerland, reports that air pollution is high in a radius from the southwest to the northeast of the country.
That dust reached about 180,000 tonnes, according to the calculation models used, meteorologist Roman Broly of SRF Meteo told public radio.
Already on Friday, a strong southerly wind had carried sand from the Sahara from northern Africa to Switzerland.
The Sahara is the biggest source of mineral dust, releasing between 60 and 200 million tonnes per year, and while larger particles fall quickly to the ground, smaller ones can be transported thousands of kilometers and reach across Europe.
As it settles, this sand gives the snow an orange tint.
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