Do you think the mountain on the right is snowy or sandy? The answer is both! Last March, parts of Eastern Europe had a snowfall that contained sand from the Sahara Desert in Africa.
Storms over northern Africa swept the Saharan sand up into the atmosphere, the layer of gases that surround Earth. Strong winds carried the sand north, where the air was colder. There the material mixed with snow that was forming over areas of Eastern Europe. The sand gave the snow that fell an orange tint!
Winds can carry Saharan sand hundreds of miles, says meteorologist Jason Nicholls. When it falls mixed with snow, it looks otherworldly. “It almost looks like you’re on the surface of Mars,” he says.