Saharan Dust Cloud Sweeps Across Southern and Eastern France

This is a phenomenon that occurs every year. Already on Saturday, Sahara sand dust, carried by the winds, flew over several regions such as Burgundy, Franche-Comté, Alsace, the Vosges, the Alps, and the Lyon region. Even the city of Oran in Algeria was on its trajectory the previous Friday, according to Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace.

This rise in Sahara sand dust "is a phenomenon that occurs quite regularly, provided there is a fairly sustained southerly wind regime," especially in the fall or winter, says Frédéric Nathan, a forecaster at Météo France.

According to the Spanish monitoring center, after flying over eastern Spain, then the south and east of France on Saturday, this Sunday the particles will converge towards central Europe, while gradually losing intensity. They will also reach Switzerland, a large part of Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.

In October 2017, a major episode of this kind had reached Brittany and flown over Portugal. Affected by forest fires, it was transporting ashes in addition to sand, the forecaster recalled.