The sky in London has turned a deep reddish brown due to dust from the Sahara desert whipped up in the plumes of ex-hurricane Ophelia, which is pounding Ireland and the British isles at this hour.
All over England, the sky looked as if it was in the middle of a sandstorm. The sky was a deep brown and orange, and the sun turned red – or disappeared behind the swirls of sand in the sky.
If it resembled something you'd expect to see in the Sahara Desert, that's because it was. The sand and dust had been carried over from southern Europe and Africa by recent bizarre weather, and as it swirled around in the sky it blocked out the sun and turned the sky dark.
Ophelia, now a still-powerful post-tropical storm, is the strongest eastern Atlantic hurricane ever recorded.
Some Twitter photos of the phenomenon:
The sky in #London has turned into a CRAZY(!) reddish brown colour. It feels incredibly weird…and getting more weird by the minute. So many people are looking at the sky and taking photos. #Ophelia #SaharanDust #FireParticles #RedSun pic.twitter.com/nMQ2e7MdTb
— Tomasz Schafernaker (@Schafernaker) October 16, 2017
An eerie red sky over London. #redsun #ophelia #sahara pic.twitter.com/nPlVN3CEiS
— St Paul's Cathedral (@StPaulsLondon) October 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/cmcollins_hort/status/919927780556623872
https://twitter.com/MStanleyAuthor/status/919935832307445760
Piccadilly looking weird. #redsun pic.twitter.com/ZWrYWQ3qAX
— B.P. Walter (@BarnabyWalter) October 16, 2017
