Doctors sound the alarm
Like on Mars: Saharan dust keeps Greece on tenterhooks
People in Greece are currently being confronted with images that are otherwise more familiar from science fiction films. Several cities - including the capital Athens - have been shrouded in dense orange. However, the eerily beautiful effect also has its downside: emergency rooms recorded an increase in patients.
Over the course of the day, the sky over Athens turned a deep red due to the dust, creating a dim, oppressive atmosphere as well as respiratory problems.
Shortness of breath, coughing, chest pains - due to large amounts of Saharan dust in the air, more people than usual turned up at hospital emergency rooms in Athens on Tuesday.
Doctors on the island of Crete and in the city of Kalamata also sounded the alarm: the newspaper "To Proto Thema" reported that people there had turned to pulmonologists in many cases. Although the fine dust pollution was very high this time, it was far from a record. "A few years ago, there was a pollution level of 3,000 micrograms per cubic meter of air," recalled Michalopoulos. The daily average limit is actually 50 micrograms per cubic meter.
Dust contains tiny particles
Experts had already warned about the weather conditions and advised people with respiratory diseases and allergies in particular to avoid being outdoors. The Greek Association of Pneumologists announced that the African dust contains even the smallest particles that could penetrate deep into the lungs. The dust is also associated with cardiovascular diseases.
Air gets trapped at an altitude of two kilometers
The Attica region around Athens is regularly affected by the phenomenon, especially in spring and fall, due to climatic conditions, meteorologists told the daily newspaper "Kathimerini". Warm southerly winds carrying dust from Africa meet cooler currents from the north, causing the dust-carrying warm air to rise to heights of up to two kilometers and remain there.
Because the dust particles reflect the sun's rays, the sky glows a hazy red, said Nikos Michalopoulos from the National Observatory of Athens.
More dust here again from Sunday
Meteorologists have given the all-clear: the phenomenon is expected to subside during the course of the day as westerly winds drive the dust eastwards. What remains is a red layer of very fine dust that covers cars and balconies everywhere.
"From Sunday, it will be dustier here too," explained ORF meteorologist Manuel Oberhuber on X (formerly Twitter). However, it is always difficult to say whether the sky will be orange. "It depends, among other things, on where exactly the dust comes from. In certain areas of the northern Sahara, the dust is particularly dark orange/brown."
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