This past April, the skies above Athens, Greece, turned an eerie shade of orange. The cause? A massive dust storm blown north from the Sahara, a desert in Africa. The dust-filled sky above Greece looked hazy and gray during the day. But at night, the setting sun reflected off the dust particles, creating a fiery glow.
Dust storms like this happen somewhat regularly in the spring, says Kostas Lagouvardos, research director at the National Observatory of Athens. But this was the most powerful one to hit Greece since 2018. “People were told to expect dust, but they didn’t expect the color of the sky,” Lagouvardos says. “It was a spectacular view.”