41 thoughts

  2. In Israel every summer we have what we call a “Chamseen” which means “Fifty” or typically, 50 days. It was the number of super-heated days when the sand from the Sahara blew up our way. The air would be full of grit, the temperature would rise to insanely high levels — and there was not a breath of air or a breeze anywhere. Back then, no one had air conditioning, so we did a lot of lying on the floor where the tiles were cool. Also, the air was better lower down.

    We had that yellow-orange air, too — and when the chamseen broke and the temperature dropped, the cleaning started. There were a lot of out-of-sorts people during chamseen. Lots of fist fights over parking spaces and general grouchiness. I didn’t know that same gritty air traveled as far as Portugal.

    The Sahara was humanity’s first big contribution to climate change because WE created it using bad farming techniques and Americans did exactly the same thing and created our own Sahara, the “Dust Bowl” that had been a sea of prairie grass.

    Isn’t is strange how history keep repeating — or as Mark Twain said — rhyming?

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    1. Fascinating – but also really glad it was not that bad here. And suspect history will forever be rhyming, us humans are not great at learning!

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  8. I’m hoping the effect is heightened in photography because I haven’t seen anything like that here in the Algarve. There’s a lot of dust and washing down to do though.

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    1. Fortunately Covid masks work well against dust too! Has been an extraordinary couple of days. Still a bit around, but we can now see where the sun might be so that’s a huge improvement!

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  12. I’ve been seeing Sahara skies on Facebook from Switzerland and Germany but I couldn’t read the comments. What is it like to be in it? I suspect much like the orange sky we had during fire season a few years ago. Really makes us aware of how we all are connected!

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    1. Around us wasn’t too noticeable to be out and about it, but we have worn our masks when outside. Car has had to be washed daily so we can see out, and it feels very eerie at times

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    1. You’re so right about the eerie atmosphere and light. This has been the worst one we’ve ever experienced – lasted days. Hopefully beginning to go though now

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