News

Sahara sandstorm dust is making orange-tinted snow fall over eastern Europe

The Met Office said that this phenomenon has happened before elsewhere.
The Met Office said that this phenomenon has happened before elsewhere. The Met Office said that this phenomenon has happened before elsewhere.

Eastern Europe has been given an apocalyptic make-over after orange-tinted snow was spotted in several countries.

The colourful snow was spotted in Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania and Moldova on Friday.

Meteorologists say the phenomenon is caused by sand from desert storms mixing with snow and rain – in this case dust from the Sahara Desert.

Margarita Alshina posted photos from Sochi, Russia, which was home to the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The ski slope at The Rosa Khutor Resort is seen covered in a fine orange dust.

Марсианские пейзажи, апокалипсис на горе сегодня! Я думала, что такое бывает только вблизи Африки, на Лансароте-Тенерифе или ещё где-то там, этот ветер горячий, который несёт песок из пустыни. Но в Поляне тоже произошло что-то невероятное, хотя пустыни довольно далеко. Если честно, жёлтый песок сверху мокрого снега, – зрелище необычное, но очень грустное. Сезон, и без того короткий, с каждым днём оставляет все меньше надежд на продолжение. #розахутор #песчанаябуря #желтыйснег #бурявкраснойполяне #rosakhutor #yellowsnow #sandstorm

A post shared by Маргарита Альшина (@margarita_alshina) on

A spokesperson for The Met Office said that the phenomenon had happened before.

He said: “There has been a lot of lifted sand or dust originating from North Africa and the Sahara, from sand storms which have formed in the desert.

“As the sand gets lifted to the upper levels of the atmosphere, it gets distributed elsewhere… When it rains or snows, it drags down whatever is up there, if there is sand in the atmosphere.”