Monster Saharan Dust Plume is heading to Europe

February 18, 2021. (Click on image for high resolution view.)

A large dust plume drifted over the Atlantic Ocean with some of the airborne squalls moving northeast.

Each year, more than 180 million tonnes of dust comes out of North Africa, lifted from the Sahara Desert by strong seasonal winds. Perhaps the best known are the huge showy plumes that cross the tropical Atlantic Ocean into the Americas. But the dust is also going elsewhere – settling in other parts of Africa or drifting north to Europe.

A dramatic display of airborne dust particles (above) was observed on February 18, 2021 from visible infrared imaging radiometers (VIIRS) on the NOAA-20 spacecraft. Dust appears to be widespread, but particularly agitated during the Bodélé depression in northeastern Chad.

The image below, also acquired on February 18, shows the scale of the plume in relation to the continents bordering the Atlantic Ocean. It was acquired by the NASATerrestrial Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on the NOAA DSCOVR satellite.

February 18, 2021. (Click on image for high resolution view.)

While much of the plume appears west of Africa, a tendril of dust can be seen riding the winds towards Europe. According to an article by research meteorologist Marshall Shepherd, strong and persistent southerly winds push Saharan dust toward Europe at least a few times a year.

Forecasts from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service indicated that most of the dust reaching Europe this weekend is likely to be concentrated in Spain and France, but some could be carried as far north as the Norway. Parts of Spain could see ‘mud rains’ as the approaching dust plume combines with a weather front.

The dust storm in mid-February follows an intense event earlier this month over southern and central Europe. Saharan dust from this storm covered the snow in the Pyrenees and the Alps and made the sky orange in France.

Dust can degrade air quality and speed up the melting of snow cover. But it also plays a major role in the Earth’s climate and biological systems, absorbing and reflecting solar energy and fertilizing ocean ecosystems with iron and other minerals that plants and phytoplankton need to thrive.

Image from NASA’s Earth Observatory by Lauren Dauphin, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS / Worldview and National Polar Orbit Suomi Partnership.