ATHENS: Athenians are choking in clouds of thick dust blown in from the Sahara along with unseasonably warm weather, weather forecasters and doctors warned on Thursday.

The haze covering the Greek capital comes from southerly winds that blow dust from North Africa across the eastern Mediterranean from March to April, the head of the Greek meteorological service Theodoros Kolydas said on X, formerly Twitter.

“A typical sandstorm with a range of 200 kilometres carries 20 to 30 million tonnes of dust and sometimes as much as 100 million,” he wrote.

The city regularly experiences such sandstorms but the current one is accompanied by unusually high spring temperatures, heightening the choking effect. Wednesday saw the highest March temperature in central Athens since 2009 — 25.3 degrees Celsius (77.5 Fahrenheit). Further south on the island of Crete, the temperature reached 32 Celsius.

The Greek Pulmonologists’ Union advised asthma sufferers and other vulnerable people to avoid “unnecessary movements and outdoor sports during the times of highest dust concentration”.

It warned that the dust can be mixed with pollen, bacteria and fungi, “a highly toxic mixture that is dangerous for the human body, particularly the respiratory system”.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2024