The Madeira archipelago has been hit by dust from North Africa, which has affected air quality and worsened some health problems, particularly in cases of chronic allergies.
Since January, this situation has been causing a reduction of visibility in the atmosphere, being possible to observe a ‘dark’ sky due to dust from the Sahara desert.
According to forecasts made available by the European Union Earth Observation Program – CAMS (Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Services), the highest concentrations at surface level will have reached their peak between the 28th and 31st of January, informed the Portuguese Institute of the Sea. and the Atmosphere (IPMA).
These events are due to a favorable circulation at the surface, with wind from the east quadrant associated with warmer and drier air masses, in the joint circulation of a depression with expression in altitude over the archipelago, and an anticyclone located in the region of the Gulf of Biscay, in which the transport of these particles to higher levels of the troposphere would have been favored, he explains.
“In the satellite images (figure 1) it was also possible to detect, in the pink/magenta areas, a higher concentration of these particles, especially in the images of the 29th and 30th at 15UTC (15:00 local time) over the archipelago. from Madeira. The dark red areas represent medium and high cloudiness. With the occurrence of precipitation on some of these days, especially on the 29th in the late afternoon, some dust was deposited that would have been visible on various types of surfaces”, he informs.