Saharan dust cloud moving across Europe ‘which could potentially to hit the south of the UK’

Forecasters have said on Wednesday that a Saharan dust cloud is moving across Europe which “could potentially to hit the south of the UK” today.

The dust cloud is around 2km above ground level and could fall to the ground due to rain moving across southern parts of England on Wednesday, the Met Office said.

We can see the #SaharanDust moving north across Iberia and France on this satellite movie

Whilst this #dust is mostly about 2km above ground level, some deposits of #dust may fall to the ground, especially during any rain in southern parts of the UK over the next 24 hours pic.twitter.com/aofiDpmGdB

— Met Office (@metoffice) March 15, 2022

Richard Miles, of the Met Office, told the PA news agency, “Storm Celia over Spain is indeed pulling a dust cloud up from the Sahara, which could potentially reach as far as the south of the UK.

“However, we don’t expect significant impacts – the most likely would be on the cloudscapes at sunset, but as conditions are likely to be generally overcast and wet for much of the day this is unlikely to amount to much. There are no air quality warnings.

“People in the south might find a bit of dust left on their cars as the rain washes it out of the skies today.”

The Met Office said on Wednesday they expect it to be cloudy for most of England, Wales and eastern Scotland, with heavy rain which will become more widespread later in the day in central and eastern areas.