Saharan dust drifting through the atmosphere towards Britain is expected to turn the sky orange and could cause spectacular glowing sunsets this evening.
Winds emanating from the south over the famous desert which stretches across North Africa have sent a plume of reddish dust and sand into the air.
Italy, France, Greece and Switzerland have all been affected by the clouds of fine particles.
During rainfall, the dust is brought down, leaving noticeable deposits on cars.
“We are getting dust all the way from the Sahara. We’re going to see dust on cars in the morning, and we are going to get some impressive sunsets this evening," Met Office forecaster Mark Wilson told The Independent.
“We’ve got this dust that’s blown up from the south, from the Sahara, and then, particularly if we catch any showers, it will bring some of the dust down, but it’s nothing too major,” he said.
“When we have an air mass that comes from very far south it picks up Saharan dust and lifts that into the atmosphere.
“It’s not necessarily to do with the weather that’s happening down there [in Africa], but more the fact the winds from the south are bringing up this Saharan dust and it's heading to the UK."
However, Mr Wilson added that the phenomenon would not last long, due to a change in wind direction.
“We’re going to see a massive change in the weather over the next 24 hours or so," he explained.
"Essentially we will lose the source of the air from the Sahara and will see an Atlantic air mass move across the UK from the south west. So the dust will affect us more today and possibly tomorrow, and we’ll see the changes after that."
Putting your jumpers away for the summer would be a “big mistake”, Mr Wilson added.
“It will be cooler from tomorrow, and by the weekend, Friday and Saturday, it will be noticeably cooler and in some places there will be over a ten-degree drop. It will be a bit of a shock to the system."
