Saharan dust moving across Europe has hit the UK, turning the skies orange over southern parts of the country, meteorologists have said.
It comes ahead of what is expected to be the hottest day of the year so far on Saturday, with temperatures set to reach up to 18C in some areas.
The dust cloud, which is about 2km above ground level, hit Sussex, Kent and London on Wednesday afternoon. The overall impact is “unlikely” to be significant, forecasters said, but people in affected areas were able to see a “red or orange tinge” in the sky.
Met Office meteorologist Dan Stroud explained that the colours were caused by a phenomenon known as Rayleigh scattering from additional particles in the air. “The dust in the atmosphere causes the light to be more refracted, so you get the dominance of the red and orange tinges of the spectrum,” he said.
It comes as a plume, named Storm Celia in other countries, sweeps across Europe from the Sahara, blanketing parts of southern Spain and France.
Stroud said the dust was likely to be washed out of the air by an area of cloud and rain pushing eastwards across the West Country on Wednesday evening.
But high pressure building behind the wet weather over the course of the weekend is likely to see southern areas of England treated to a warm spring Saturday.
“We are likely to see some very pleasant spring sunshine, especially for the London and south-east area, during the course of the Saturday,” Stroud said. “We’re looking at temperatures of up to 16, 17, and perhaps even a rounded 18C could be possible.”
Rain in England will begin to clear later on Wednesday as many regions turn cold, with patchy frost and some rural mist, the Met Office has said.
Thursday is expected to be sunnier for most of England and Wales, with some wind and showers in the south-east. Showers, frost and fog are likely to continue hitting some parts of the UK until Friday.
