Weather: African dust “suffered” southern Greece – New wave coming from Monday

High concentrations from the Sahara were recorded in the south with a new “wave” coming from Monday, April 1. According to records by the air quality station of meteo.gr, the high concentrations of African dust were recorded in the mid-day hours in southern Greece. PM10 particle concentrations exceeded 180 μg/m3 at 12:30 and have since gradually retreated, as expected and based on the forecasts of the Dust/METEO model of the National Observatory of Athens. This air quality station is part of the weather information and warning system developed by meteo.gr / National Observatory of Athens in collaboration with the Municipality of Rethymnon. “This is a phenomenon presented these months. It is no wonder that it happens in March usually accompanied by southern winds and with increased temperature,” his research director told the Institute Environmental and Sustainable Development Research, at the National Observatory, Dr. Costas Lagovardos and added that this is not the worst episode. “An important environmental problem” “Five years ago we had a much bigger one in Crete. It is a phenomenon that we now see quite often. How much has increased its frequency we cannot say because we do not have very old measurements to do this. But it is an important environmental problem because it affects many people, especially when concentrations are large on the ground,” notes Mr. Lagovard, while stressing that high concentrations of dust have been recorded but not so intensely low. However, it stresses that today there are measurements in Crete that these concentrations are also low. Finally, Mr. Laward points out that since this afternoon the phenomenon has been falling away, but “there seems to be a new wave of heat, stronger than we had and dust transport since the beginning of next week, that is, in the early days of April.” See images from Heraklion and Nafplio