A mix of African dust and high temperatures: “Alert Bell” from the experts

How the phenomenon will evolve – Concern about the transport of pathogens

The African dust that made its appearance again yesterday in many parts of the country and covered the skies of Athens and Thessaloniki, making the atmosphere suffocating, is worrying experts.

A similar scene is expected today, where African dust will continue to create an explosive cocktail along with the heat.

The phenomenon of African dust is expected to last, as successive waves are expected until the end of May, according to Professor A. Kazantzidis, chairman of the Physics Department of the University of Patras and director of the Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics. “Towards the end of the week we will be much better. It is a matter of adapting to the phenomenon.

Unfortunately, we will see them more intense and more often and the quantities will be greater, but the frequency will be greater, and mainly this is combined with poor air quality,” said among others, Demosthenes Sarigiannis, professor of Environmental Engineering AUTh, president of the National Research Foundation, speaking to ERT.

Experts, however, are ringing alarm bells for vulnerable groups.

Professor of Pulmonology at the Medical School of the University of Crete Nikos Tzanakis summarized that since we see the atmosphere has this orange it would be good to avoid exposure and staying outdoors especially doing manual or other physical activities

The dust that arrives from Africa contains transported particles that can integrate with pollen, bacteria and fungi creating a highly toxic and dangerous mixture for the human body and especially for the respiratory system.

In any case, the unprecedented high temperatures throughout the country contributed to making the atmosphere even more suffocating.

The spread of African dust was so great yesterday that quantities of it reached as far as Scandinavia and Russia, as Klearhos Marousakis said in a post.

According to the Open meteorologist from today “we gradually expect the whole phenomenon to subside in our region and until the end of the week we do not expect a new significant episode.

The weather today

Sunshine is forecast with scattered clouds and locally limited visibility in the evening and early morning hours. The atmospheric circulation favours the transport of dust from North Africa.

See Also:

Language developed 8 times earlier than previously thought, says new book (video)

The temperature will range from 9 to 27 degrees in Northern Greece (in Western Macedonia from 7 to 22 degrees), 13 to 29 degrees in Central and Southern Greece, 15 to 24 degrees in Western Greece (from 7 to 21 degrees in Epirus), 13 to 24 degrees in the Cyclades, 10 to 29 degrees in Crete, 13 to 27 degrees in the East Aegean islands and 17 to 24 degrees in the Dodecanese.

The winds will blow in the Aegean from southwestern directions weak to almost moderate 3-4 Beaufort and locally in the southwestern Aegean moderate 5 Beaufort, where gradually after the afternoon and from the north will turn to northwestern moderate 4-5 Beaufort, while in the Ionian Sea from northwestern directions weak to almost moderate 3-4 Beaufort.