African dust: The timelapse with “Minerva Red” that “painted” the sky of Attica orange

The video from the National Observatory of Athens

A timelapse video of the “Minerva Red” African dust transport episode in Greece, on April 23 and 24, 2024, was presented by meteo.gr/National Observatory of Athens.

It was the disputed two days that African dust “suffocated” Greece, painting the sky orange and making the atmosphere stifling. Unusual images were recorded in Attica as well as in many regions of the country.

Sarigiannis: African dust will return in May

The Professor of Environmental Engineering at AUTH, Demosthenes Sarigiannis, in his statements to ERT, he said how “we expect to see a new episode with African dust until mid-May, which could be of the same intensity as the current one, maybe more depending on the climatic conditions that will prevail”. As he estimated, “from May onwards things will be much better. Next fall we will have another episode of African dust.”

He emphasized the increased incidence of African dust as well as the duration of the episode and the volume of particles and emphasized “this is new evidence and it has to do with climate change”. As he noted, “We should adapt to what means that the National Health System should also be ready to deal with acute cases of people who will have problems”.

The worrying thing is, as he pointed out, the fact that “this burden comes to be added to the particle burden which we have anyway in the large urban centers of Greece, in Athens, in Thessaloniki, in Volos for example, in Ioannina, where the air quality, objectively speaking, is not very good in relation to particles”.