The return of Saharan dust

The heat It is still The undisputed protagonist of this summer start, but this week he gives us a brief truce again, at least in the western half of the peninsula. The reason is on the arrival of a Dana from the Atlantic. A Dana that will refresh us but that is also going to collect its price. The calima returns. The calima shape, suspension powder from the Sahara. The forecasts indicate That the arrival of a new isolated depression at high levels, a Dana, will bring more than rains and instability. In this sense, it is expected to be during the day today that the greatest concentrations will be achieved. The arrival of calima fueled by an unstable atmosphere has one more consequence, the “rain of blood” or mud. This phenomenon occurs when the rain drags the dust in suspension, clouding and embarking the surfaces on which water and particles are deposited. According to The forecasts From the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet), the entrance of Calima will occur from Alborán and will reach the Southwest Peninsular, where they could lead to these clay rains. Tomorrow the calima could reach the eastern third of the Peninsula and the Balearic archipelago. A DANA -shaped relief. The good news is that temperatures will fall, first in the western half of the country. Throughout the next few days, meteorologists foresee from a new round of storms, hail and wind. The Dana will also bring instability. Aemet’s forecasts They talk about storms and showers that today can be “locally strong or very strong” and come accompanied by hail and gusts “very strong”, both in the center and in the northern peninsular third. Tomorrow storms and showers could be “locally strong” in addition to coming accompanied by hail and wind in large part of the northwest of the plateau, Cantabrian and Galicia. Given the situation, Aemet will activate today Various yellow and orange notices for rains and storms, especially in the northwestern quadrant of the Peninsula. The orange notices will be activated in much of Castilla y León, as well as in areas of the interior of Cantabria and the Basque Country. Relief, only temporary. The thermal relief propitiated by the Dana will be brief. Experts expect that the second half of the week will bring us back the intense heat of these weeks. Part of the fault will be strengthening A subtropical dorsal that will bring atmospheric stability again in our environment and, with it, will lead to the return of heat. A problem for many. Calima has been a discreet but recurring character in peninsular meteorology, eclipsed by extreme phenomena such as warm episodes and hail storms that we have seen alternate since the end of May. The calima It entails some risks that go beyond the accumulation of dust and mud on the surface. The arrival of dust in suspension can cause irritation in the mucous membranes and obstruct our airways. The result of this can be nasal obstruction, cough or itching in the eyes. Some groups can be specially affected by this atmospheric situation. In Xataka | We do not know anything about El Niño at this point of the year. That is a meteorological mystery … and good news Image | Dust.aemet / Aemet

There are more and more intrusions of Saharan dust in southern Europe. Now we know that fungi and bacteria are accompanied

Since 2021, Calima’s episodes They have been increasingly frequent and intense. In fact, in these few years, the intrusions of Saharian dust in Spain have doubled. We already knew that this was becoming A huge public health problem And that, at the same time, it was a key factor in fertilization of large areas of the planet. What we just discovered is, in addition to dust, there are many more things in that calima. How are “more things”? A joint research team of the Blanes Advanced Studies Center (CEAB-CSIC) and the Ecological Research and Forest Applications Center (CREAF) He has discovered that “bacteria and fungi from the soils of the deserts of North Africa occupy the skies of southern Europe continuously.” They do, in fact, “even long after the great injections of Saharian dust produced by the episodes of Calima.” Analyzing 30 years of rains. To discover it, researchers They have studied Rain samples between 1987 and 2014 and have compared the results with the soils of the deserts of North Africa. In addition, they have recreated the main atmospheric dynamics that are in charge of dispersing microorganisms globally. And this is important? The truth is that yes. Until now It was thought that the microbiota present in a specific ecosystem was basically derived from that ecosystem and its neighbors. Now we have experimental record that continental distances can travel without major problem. On a practical level, all this not only has an impact on soil fertilization, but also on the spread of antibiotic -resistant genes or allergies. Could it be that the growth of allergies among the population was linked to that growth in dust intrusions on the peninsula? The increasingly small world. During the last decades we have believed that new information and transport technologies have made the world smaller and smaller. And it’s true. What we did not know is that the world was already very small before all this. And that changes the preconceived ideas we had been handling. Therefore, it is getting clearer, that we will have to assume the complicated task of manage comprehensive all ecological systems of the earth. And we better be prepared to do it well. Image | Copernicus In Xataka | More pollen, more deaths behind the wheel: the unexpected effect of the allergies season on traffic accidents

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