Saharan dust on its way

[Len W]

Sun has been very hazy today, partly due to the large aerosol loading aloft.

The most affected is SW England with  deposits of Saharan dust possible in showers later.

Len

[Julian Mayes]

...as also pointed out in the BBC weather forecast recently - priming people to send in nice sunrise pics tmrw.  (if they have the sun).  

Julian   

[Graham Easterling]

It's been here all day

Visibility here has been moderate at best, Camborne's reporting poor most of the time, and it's been dust not low cloud. It's been difficult to make out the patches of cloud through all the mirk.

There have been reasonable spells of sunshine, 5 hours at nearby Bosullow, but it's so weak & milky.  Barely see the shadows. Line of showers slowly approaching should bring some of it down

Last time it made the sun this feeble was in April 2011, but on that occasion  virtually no shadows (and no cloud) but visibility good at sea level. A strange eerie colour and really low light for a near cloudless day.

Graham

Penzance

[robk fw190]

Interesting, The light reminds me of when we had an eclipse almost seems monochrome like but with an orange tint.

[Graham Easterling]

Yes, it was very similar to the light as you approached totality. I've never seen anything quite like it before or sense. People were just standing around in bemusement as it was so dim yet sunny.

The actual date was 8th April 2011. Here is an image showing the dust plume over the tip of Cornwall, basically just the Liard & Lands End peninsulas.

Graham

Penzance

[Graham Easterling]

Correction
The actual date was 7th April 2011!

Graham

Penzance

[Dave C]

Yes, one of the clearest coatings of Sahara dust I have seen on my car. One because it was unusually clean before and two because there were lots of discreet splodges.