Even for meteorologists it was a “really striking event”, as a spokesman for the German Weather Service (DWD) called it, when Sahara dust colored the sky over Munich in mid-March apocalyptically orange-red to ocher-brownish. The next day the sky was only milky-cloudy instead of white-blue. An indication that Sahara dust was still on the move at high altitude and it was still a bit too early for the car wash.
Rain washed out considerable amounts of dust, says the DWD spokesman. “There’s quite a bit down there.” But the dust, which rose in massive amounts from the desert to high altitudes due to a low-pressure complex over North Africa, continued to linger in the air for a few days, although the discolouration after a rainstorm was less pronounced.
In the days before Easter, Sahara dust could again cloud the sunshine in southern Germany – but probably not as spectacularly as a month ago.
Don’t wipe! The dust acts like sandpaper
Sahara sand everywhere you look: the surface should never be simply wiped away.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
In the morning after the most impressive Sahara dust day in March, the first queues formed at car washes, many wanted to remove the traces of the “blood rain”, as the drops associated with dust are popularly called because of their color. The layer of fine particles can be seen particularly well on garden furniture, cars, window panes and conservatories. If you simply wipe over it with a cloth, you will leave permanent marks, especially on glossy paint surfaces. “It goes ratchet-ratchet,” says a meteorologist, the dust acts like sandpaper.
For this reason, and because car washing in front of the front door is generally forbidden, the ADAC advises driving to the car wash and not waiting long because otherwise the layer of dust could be burned in by the sun.
After that, manual work is required anyway: According to the ADAC, the otherwise covered sheet metal surfaces should also be cleaned with open doors and flaps – with a well-dampened cloth that is often washed out. The interior may also need to be cleaned and the pollen filter replaced.
On the other hand, anyone who owns a garden and still has their summer furniture in the basement can look forward to the “natural fertilizer that comes free from the sky, with minerals and trace elements,” as the DWD spokesman says. Saharan dust even supplies the South American rainforests with important nutrients.