English: A massive dust storm pushed Saharan dust over the Mediterranean Sea—and far beyond—in late April 2019. Heavy winds began to blow over Algeria on April 21 and by April 23 dust had been reported over much of western, central, and southern Europe. On that same day, local media in the United Kingdom reported a “red sky” event, as well as a plague of dust-covered cars. On April 24, Severe Weather Europe reported an exceptionally heavy cloud of dust pushing across the Atlantic Ocean, over Iceland, and into Greenland. Dust also extended from southern Scandinavia across central and southeastern Europe in Turkey. Heavy loads of Saharan dust persist over southern, central and eastern Mediterranean, the southern Balkans, and reached all the way to the Alps on April 25.

The dust event began on April 21, initiated by strong southerly low-level winds which were pushing northward, spurred by a broad cutoff upper low hanging over the western Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula. The low and the resultant winds were nearly stationary for several days, giving ample opportunity for large amounts of Sahara dust to be lifted and entrained into a long, sweeping tongue of dust that affected an exceptionally broad area. The dust appears to have come from a broad area, including Algeria.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of the massive dust storm blowing from Africa and over the Mediterranean on April 23. Nearly all of the area in the north of the image is covered by thick dust.