Affected by the cyclone in North Africa, a southeast gale of magnitude 5-6 occurred in northern Algeria at 06:00 on March 14 (UTC), with gusts of magnitude 9-10, accompanied by obvious sand blowing weather. The visibility decreased rapidly from about 10 km to 5 km. As the wind speed continued to increase, dust storms and strong dust storms occurred in northeastern Algeria at 12:00 (UTC), with a minimum visibility of only 200 m. The dust has crossed the Mediterranean and affected  Spain.

   As of 17:00 on the 15^th, the dust is still affecting the above areas, and the visibility in some areas is only 100m. The monitoring image of FY-3D meteorological satellite shows that dust weather occurred in Algeria, Spain, Portugal, France, Switzerland and the ocean on the northern of Spain at 14:10 (UTC) on March 15. FY-3D meteorological satellite aerosol optical thickness product shows that the aerosol optical thickness in the dust area is greater than 0.8, and the area of dust is about 770000 km².

Fig. 1. FY-3D Dust Monitoring on March 15, 2022

Fig. 2. Aerosol Optical Thickness Image on March 15, 2022

Fig.3. Photo by DESIREE MARTIN/AFP

It is expected that as the cyclone system moves eastward and weakens, the dust will gradually weaken at night on the 16th March. (Source: RSMC-ASDF Beijing, NSMC)