Sometimes, the complex weather systems surrounding our island can deliver an unexpected visitor – Saharan sand. This happens several times a year, when dust from the Sahara Desert is carried north by strong winds, and it mixes into our cloud ecosystems. Learn more about how this happens below, along with how it affects the country.
The Sahara Desert
Most people have at least heard of the Sahara Desert before, owing to its reputation as the world’s largest sand desert in the world. It spans over three and a half thousand square miles across the north of Africa, starting at Morocco and ending at the eastern coasts of Egypt and Sudan.
Due to its Egyptian connections, the Sahara Desert has featured a lot in the media and pop culture. It has appeared in everything from classic movies to modern games on iGaming websites online. For example, the distinct cultures of the Sahara can be seen by those who play the Sahara Riches Cash Collect slot. It’s a themed slot set in the iconic desert, with grand Arabic architecture towering behind its reels. Outside of some slot games, the Sahara is also a popular setting and even a filming location for historical epics about Egypt, or any scene that needs a rolling, golden expanse of natural desert.
Saharan Dust in the UK
While the desert is well-known for its cultural exports, its sand is also carried by the winds that sweep across its vast surface. Most of the time, this sand doesn’t reach very far and settles elsewhere. However, under certain conditions, grains of sand can travel at least two thousand miles to arrive at our shores.
When this happens, it’s called a dust plume and is usually announced by news and weather services. For a dust plume to form, two basic requirements need to be met. First, a dust storm needs to form and travel across the Sahara, kicking up billions of dust particles into the air. Second, there needs to be a southerly wind pattern that snatches the dust and pushes it north, toward Europe. Naturally, if the UK is getting Saharan dust, the rest of Europe gets a helping of it too.
Wind patterns are highly complex and control a lot of our weather. In the UK, you’ve likely heard of the jet stream and how it affects us from the west. If not, the BBC explains the jet stream here. For Sahara dust plumes, a similar thing happens but it reaches us from the south instead.
How Saharan Dust Affects Us
Generally, Saharan dust plumes are harmless when they arrive, but it does reduce the air quality which could cause complications for some individuals. Closer to the Sahara, it’s not uncommon to develop a scratchy throat. It has a more noticeable effect on sunlight, by making dawn and dusk more intensely red in colour. If hit by a direct plume, it can cause this dim orange weather at any time of the day.
For most, the biggest consequence is to our cars. When dust lingers in our atmosphere, it becomes so small that it gets caught up in our water cycle. As explained by the Met Office, the water cycle is where bodies of water evaporate and then condense against the heat of the sun, forming clouds. Those clouds hang in the air for a while, getting wetter and heavier, but during that time they’re also exposed to the dust. So, when it does finally rain, Saharan dust particles come down in the droplets and famously leave small dirt marks on our cars.
These plumes can happen multiple times in a single year, including in the colder British seasons. They’re more common during warmer seasons because that’s when storms are more likely to form over the Sahara. By mid-2024, it had already happened twice, in late January and the start of April, but neither was strong enough to make a noticeable impact here in the UK. There’s no doubt it’ll happen again in the near future, so keep an eye out for dusty raindrops the next time it rains.
