Saharan dust clouds visibility over Switzerland
Keystone-SDA
A low-pressure system has stirred up desert sand from the Sahara and is now sending it across Switzerland.
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There is already a lot of Sahara dust in the air in the western part of the country, the Swiss weather service Meteonews noted on Platform X on Thursday afternoon. Visibility was still good in the east, but this would change in the course of the afternoon.
According to forecasts by the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss), the concentration of Saharan dust in Switzerland will reach its peak on Friday.
The low-pressure system “Regina”, which is located over Morocco, is responsible for the phenomenon. Strong winds swirl up large quantities of dust there, which reaches higher layers of air and is transported to Central Europe with the high-altitude current.
+ Saharan dust blankets Switzerland, turning skies yellowExternal link
Saharan dust is present in Switzerland several times a year – most frequently between March and June and in October and November, as measurements taken by MeteoSwiss on the Jungfraujoch show. In total, between 200 and 650 hours of Saharan dust are detected in the air at the Jungfraujoch each year.
According to MeteoSwiss, the Sahara releases between 60 and 200 million tonnes of dust every year. While the larger particles quickly fall to the ground again, the smaller ones can be carried thousands of kilometres and reach the whole of Europe.
Translated from German by AI/jdp
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