The strong winds which blew into Greece during the last several days, bringing enormous quantities of dust from the Sahara desert, have created a rare and unique phenomenon on the island.
The snow-covered tops of the Cretan mountains, including Leuka Ori, have seemingly captured a large amount of the African sand and dust which had been transported in the upper atmosphere all the way from the Sahara in the recent storms.
This has resulted in the creation of a pinkish orange layer of fine sand and dust atop the snow which fell during the past several storms which recently swept across the country.
According to meteorologists, this phenomenon is not unusual, but is not exactly common, and presents a spectacular vista to onlookers.The wonderful phenomenon may have a sinister side, nevertheless. Because of its darker color, the sand may cause a faster melting of the snow on Crete's mountains than is normal. This could even cause localized flooding, because the snowmelt won't have time to be absorbed by the soil.
A new round of Saharan dust will push into southern, central and eastern Mediterranean and southeast Europe and as far as eastern Europe under the effects of the upcoming large cutoff low over the western to central Med. Map: University of Athens - SKIRON model pic.twitter.com/C4fmRoKKkL
— severe-weather.EU (@severeweatherEU) January 31, 2019
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