Sahara

According to the Moroccan government, in just two days of storms in September, some areas received as much water as would typically fall in an entire year.

A notable example is the village of Tagounit, located 450 km south of Morocco’s capital, Rabat, where 100 millimeters of rain fell within 24 hours.

Refugees and migrants face extreme violence, abuse and exploitation on land routes crossing Africa to get to the Mediterranean, with far more believed to be dying there than at sea, a U.N.-backed report said Friday.

Nearly 30,000 migrants have been declared dead or missing attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe in the past decade.

The concentrations of African dust will remain high, mainly in the western and southern parts of the country

Detailed forecast for the coming days in all regions - What is the "airborne" phenomenon that mobilises the African dust phenomenon

Instability with localised showers in most areas until Wednesday - African dust is favoured from Thursday

The eerie, orange-hued phenomenon of the Saharan dust blanketing Athens during the week has been captured by a time-lapse video released by Meteo weather service of the National Observatory of Athens.

The images were recorded on Tuesday and Wednesday, when the dust cloud was at its strongest over Greece, before receding and moving further east.

The African dust microparticles that blanketed southern Greece reached shocking concentrations in Athens of up to 700 µg/m3 on Wednesday morning when the European limit is 50 µg/m3.

The Saharan dust, called Minerva Red, started to recede as of noon, thanks to west-northwest winds.

A major plume of Saharan dust that has affected much of Greece is expected to subside during the course of Wednesday, the National Observatory of Athens' DUST/METEO service said.

Prevailing west-northwesterly winds will gradually carry the dust toward the Aegean sea, while high concentrations are expected on Thursday over the islands of the Dodecanese. 

Athens and southern parts of the country were again enveloped in Saharan dust on Tuesday, with hues of yellow and orange creating an otherworldly atmosphere.

The heavy concentration of dust particles affected most people with respiratory conditions "through the degradation of air quality," as pointed out by the Hellenic Pulmonary Society.

High concentrations of Saharan dust that enveloped most of Greece on Wednesday are to remain Thursday and Friday, heaviest in the west and south of the country. Experts warn that bacteria, fungi and pollen can be embedded in African dust, further affecting vulnerable groups.