Be careful, the sky will soon change color. Due to winds that will rise from the south of the Sahara this Wednesday, sand from the desert will spread in the sky above France in the coming days, indicates La Chaîne Météo this Tuesday.
With the #vent 🚩from the south which goes up from #Sahara from Wednesday, dust #deserts will spread to Europe. France will be particularly concerned: this sand will give a hazy, dusty and ocher appearance to the sky until Saturday. pic.twitter.com/qJthAiOqVm
— La Chaîne Météo (@lachainemeteo) November 11, 2025
Forecasts from the specialist channel show that desert dust will pass over Spain on Wednesday morning, before passing the Pyrenees by mid-morning.
On Wednesday, Météo France also forecasts peaks of wind gusts going up to 70 km/h over a large part of France, with the exception of the center, Île-de-France and the east of the country.
A “hazy” and “dusty” sky
All of France will then be affected by sand from the Sahara during the day of Thursday and Friday, according to La Chaîne Météo. The dust will even reach eastern Europe, still according to these forecasts.
Consequence: this sand “will give a hazy, dusty and ocher appearance to the sky until Saturday”, explains La Chaîne Météo.
As Météo France indicates, this arrival of Saharan sand in the European sky occurs most often in winter, with disturbances which will circulate “far to the south, with low pressure centers plunging as far as the northwest of North Africa”.
“An optical phenomenon”
“The depression, associated with the strong winds it generates, then lifts the sand of the African desert. In a context of powerful and regular southerly flow from the Maghreb to the European shores, the particles transported by the wind cross the sea and can be deposited as far as the south of Europe,” continues Météo France.
The color of the sky which changes is due to an “optical phenomenon due to the diffusion on the dust particles which can be observed ocher, up to orange and red if the sun is low on the horizon (set, rise)”.
The arrival of sand from the Sahara in the sky can affect air quality, because the particles are added to other polluting particles, Météo France further reminds.