Greece’s sky turns ‘apocalyptic’ orange from Sahara dust storm

Footage shows orange skies in Athens as winds have carried dust from North Africa.

The skies in southern Greece turned orange April 23, with clouds of dust from the Sahara Desert blowing across the Mediterranean Sea. The orange skies are predicted to clear on April 24 as winds move the dust again and temperatures drop.

The temperature in parts of Crete topped 30 degrees Celsius on April 23. The recent winds have also fanned wildfires in the south. On April 23, the fire service said that 25 wildfires had broken out across the country in the past 24 hours.

Greece suffers forest blazes in summer. Drought and high spring temperatures have raised concerns of a challenging period for firefighters this year.