Dust Outbreak Reaches Europe
Winter winds lofted clouds of dust from the Sahara Desert, carrying it north toward the Mediterranean and dispersing it widely across Europe in March 2026. When the dust combined with moisture-laden weather systems, a dirty rain fell in parts of Spain, France, and the United Kingdom.
This animation highlights the concentration and movement of dust throughout the region from March 1 to March 9. It depicts dust column mass density—a measure of the amount of dust contained in a column of air—produced with a version of the GEOS (Goddard Earth Observing System) model. The model integrates satellite data with mathematical equations that represent physical processes in the atmosphere.
The animation shows dust plumes originating in northwestern Africa being blown both to the west across the Atlantic Ocean and north toward the Mediterranean. As plumes spread throughout Western Europe over several days, people observed hazy skies from southern England, where sunrises and sunsets took on an eerie glow, to the Alps in Switzerland and Italy, where a dust layer encroached on the Matterhorn.
Not all of the dust remained aloft. Storms encountered some of the dust, causing particles to fall to the ground with rain and coat surfaces with a brownish residue. A low-pressure system, named Storm Regina by Portugal’s weather service, moved across the Iberian Peninsula and brought so-called blood rain to southern and eastern Spain, along with parts of France and the southern UK in early March, according to news reports.
Over the Mediterranean, areas of “dusty cirrus” clouds developed higher in the atmosphere, where dust particles can act as condensation nuclei for ice crystals, according to MeteoSwiss, Switzerland’s Federal Office for Meteorology and Climatology. Scientists are studying these clouds to better understand their formation and how they affect weather, climate, and even solar power generation.
In a new analysis, researchers used NASA’s MERRA-2 (Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2), observations from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), and other satellite products to parse the effect of airborne Saharan dust on solar power in Hungary. They found that photovoltaic performance dropped to 46 percent on high-dust days, compared with 75 percent or more on low-dust days. They determined the greatest losses occurred because dust enhanced the presence and reflectance of cirrus clouds and reduced the amount of radiation that reached solar panels.
Some research suggests more frequent and intense wintertime dust events have affected Europe in recent years. Researchers have proposed several factors contributing to these outbreaks, including drier-than-normal conditions in northwestern Africa and weather patterns more often driving winds north from the Sahara.
NASA Earth Observatory animation by Lauren Dauphin, using GEOS-FP data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Story by Lindsey Doermann.
References & Resources
- Barcelona Dust Regional Center (2026, March) Daily Dust Products. Accessed March 11, 2026.
- FOX Weather (2026, March 9) Blood rain, a rare weather phenomenon, falls across southern Europe. Accessed March 11, 2026.
- IQAir (2026, March 6) Southwest Europe Air Quality Alert: Southwest Europe Dust. Accessed March 11, 2026.
- Met Office (2026, March 4) What is ‘blood rain’ and will we see it this week? Accessed March 11, 2026.
- MeteoSwiss (2026, March 4) He’s here again, the visitor from North Africa. Accessed March 11, 2026.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2022, March 31) Dusty Storm Clouds Over Europe. Accessed March 11, 2026.
- NASA Earthdata (2026) Dust/Ash/Smoke. Accessed March 11, 2026.
- Seifert, A., et al. (2023) Aerosol–cloud–radiation interaction during Saharan dust episodes: the dusty cirrus puzzle. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23, 6409–6430.
- Varga, G., et al. (2026) Saharan dust and cirrus clouds: Dominating indirect impact of dust events on photovoltaic energy generation in Hungary (2019–2024). Solar Energy, 307.
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