Saharan Dust Blankets Southern France, Sparking Air Quality Alerts

These Saharan winds or the Sirocco are causing peaks of particle pollution, reports the Franceinfo channel, which indicates that alerts were in progress yesterday, Tuesday, in several departments, particularly in Hauts-de-France and Brittany, while other regions remain on alert.

For François Dulac, a researcher at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, this phenomenon is known when the warm season begins because "we have phenomena that are created in Africa with the warming of the soils. This creates depressions and therefore strong winds, which put grains of sand in suspension, like on the beach".

This phenomenon nevertheless has a positive impact on the marine environment, particularly in the Mediterranean, as these particles bring nutritional elements to the plankton, a food source for many marine animals.

In February 2017, the white color of the snows of the Pyrenees turned ocher due to the sand dust from the Sahara. Several images had indeed been published showing a reddish color that some have even described as surreal.