Date Published: 18/02/2021
ARCHIVED - More Saharan red dust on the way for Murcia and Alicante this weekend
ARCHIVED ARTICLE 
Heavy rains in the latter part of the weekend could lead to a further episode of “mud rain”
The phenomena widely known as “mud or blood rains” could well be on its way to not only the Murcian and Alicante provinces in the latter part of the weekend, but will undoubtedly be proceded by clouds of red Saharan sand before that, as another Saharan dustcloud sweeps across into Europe from Africa.
This is a fairly frequent occurrence, but 2 weeks ago left snow in not only the Spanish and French Pyrenees stained dust-red, but also tinted the French and Italian Alps the same muddy red colour!
The Laboratory of Climatology of the University of Alicante (UA), has informed that a mass of humid and warm air that rises through a sector of low pressure is forming to the west of the Spansh mainland and is likely to liberally cover the southern edge of the country, with the region of Murcia and Alicante province right in its path as it did a couple of weeks ago.
Professor Jorge Olcina, head of the Laboratory of Climatology at the University of Alicante (UA), explained in the Spansih media that the volume of dust found all over the streets and particularly visible on cars two weeks ago was the most intense episode since June 2018 in the Alicante province and Aemet, the state meteorological agency, said that overall, this last episode had been the heaviest Saharan dust incident in the last 30 year period.

When the Saharan dust becomes muddy rain is when the combination of unstable conditions due to the passage of a moist front moving in a south or south-westerly direction from Africa, drags suspended particles of Saharan sand into the lower layers of the atmosphere .
The professor is also president of the Spanish Association of Geographers (AGE) and says that this phenomena has been becoming more frequent in Spain since 1990 due to climate change because it implies an increasingly frequent presence of flows from North Africa into southern Europe and the Mediterranean basin.
The cloud of Saharan dust currently on its way to Spain is going to collide with another weather front moving down across Spain, storm Karim, which will hit the north and Galicia on Friday and bring abundant rains to much of Spain, including Murcia, Valencia Region and Andalucía; rains which will contain the Saharan dust, so potentially fall as mud rains.
These are likely to arrive late on Saturday and be heavier on Sunday, so put the car in the garage, make sure there’s no washing on the line by Saturday and don´t even think about washing the car or the patio until the middle of next week!
Image: Laboratory of Climatology of the University of Alicante (UA)
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