Alicante wakes up to a cloud of red dust covering everything

Alicante woke up to a cloud of red Saharan dust, obscuring the sun with a hazy impression and noticeable on the streets and cars. A weekend of queues at car washes is expected. This African sand cloud has also raised Alicante's air pollution level to orange this Friday, but it is expected to decrease as sea winds disperse it.

The University of Alicante's Climatology Laboratory shared an aerial image of the cloud over the city on its Facebook page.

This episode is a collateral consequence of storm 'Claudia', according to the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet). The depth of this storm northwest of the Iberian Peninsula has caused a shift in the wind to the south, facilitating the entry of suspended dust. The highest density occurred on Thursday afternoon and especially on Friday morning.

This dense cloud of red dust has lowered the air quality level in Alicante to orange. It is a temporary situation, expected to clear throughout the morning as the sun rises and winds disperse the dust.

In this regard, Esquerra Unida Podem denounces that "Alicante has not issued any alert to the population" despite the extreme Saharan dust episode and poor air quality. Manolo Copé, spokesperson for Esquerra Unida Podem, reminds that the official alert is the responsibility of the Generalitat, "but that does not exempt the City Council from its basic duty: to alert the population and coordinate. When citizens are breathing air so laden with particles, the City Council cannot simply look the other way."

The spokesperson recalls that the municipal station in the port area does not even measure PM10 or PM2.5, precisely the pollutants that pose a real risk today. "The City Council has given up on having a network capable of detecting episodes like this. And when the data exists, from the Generalitat, it simply ignores it."