Red sands: how to explain this phenomenon?

Published

Update

Article written by

N.Tabouri, M.Selli, L.Hauville – France 2

France Televisions

Less than two weeks after its first passage, the red sand of the Sahara reappears in France. How does this phenomenon take place?

In Spain, Malaga looks like planet Mars. A rain of red sand from the Sahara covered this city in southern Spain three days ago. The residents were very surprised. How to explain this phenomenon ? It comes from a depression placed on the Iberian Peninsula, which brings up powerful winds from the Sahara, and carriers of sand. These winds carry tons of dust particles, and when it rains, the heaviest fall to the ground.

The phenomenon can be harmful for the most fragile, and it could intensify with global warming. “It can be indirectly linked to climate change, in the sense that the depressions tend to dip more towards the south of Europe. It is a fairly frequent phenomenon, but which mainly concerns, usually, the Iberian peninsula or the Canaries again”explains Pierre Huat, weather forecaster.


team of the week

  • Editor-in-chief

    Elsa Pallot

  • Deputy editor-in-chief

    Sebastien Renout, Anne Poncinet, Arnaud Comte

  • Editor

    Delphine Moninot

  • Joker

    Karine Baste

The weekend team

  • Editor-in-chief

    Franck Genauzeau

  • Deputy editor-in-chief

    Irene Benefice, Willy Gouville, Jean-Francois Monier

  • Editor

    Jean Louis Gaudin

  • Joker

    Thomas Sotto

see all news

Newsletter subscription

the news at 8 p.m.

Every day, receive your 8 p.m. news directly

Newsletter subscription

Seen from Europe

Franceinfo selects daily content from European public audiovisual media, members of Eurovision. These contents are published in English or French.


source site-29

Latest