Dust Clouds From Africa And The Arabian Peninsula Travelled As Far As India.
In early May, the Mediterranean saw very persistent low pressure centres. Although not unusual for this month some of them moved off into the Middle East, causing several deep, cold-air outbreaks. These then lifted dust between the north-eastern African coast and the Arabian peninsula.
Usually, such dust storms settle when reaching the Arabian Sea and/or the Sea of Oman and its eastern coast. However, on this occasion, between 12 and 15 May, the dust moved further east and moved into Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and North India, as shown on the sequence of Dust RGBs from Meteosat-8, between 6 and 15 May (Figure 2).
