Skies over the Greek island of Crete have turned blood red and flights arebeing diverted as a cloud of dust from the Sahara drifts over the region.
Planes have been grounded on the island’s predominant airport in Heraklion, while a British Airways service from London was rerouted to Corfu.
One other flight from Brussels was diverted to Athens after the thick dustreduced visibility to around 1,000 metres – a degree at which it is taken into account unsafe to land.
Weather experts warned the phenomenon – referred to as a ‘calima’ – had led to extremely high levels of dust with greater than 1,000 micrograms per cubic metre of air.
The Greek national meterological service placed a red warning over the island for heavy rain and violent thunderstorms as Storm Erminio hits.
Flooding from the rain will pose a ‘significant risk to life and evacuations are possible’, HNMS said, while the storms can even end in ‘danger to life from lightning, hail, flooding and storm damage’.
All the Greek mainland and lots of islands have also been given yellow and orange warnings for rain and storms, with only the Dodecanese islands off the coast of Turkey avoiding the worst of the weather.
A person was found dead under a automotive early this morning within the Nea Makri near Athens, the local fire department said.
Trees have been uprooted, a wall at a ceramics factory has collapsed and greenhouses have been damaged in gale-force winds.
Some schools have also been closed amid the storm.
A tornado reportedly flipped a truck that was preparing to be loaded with agricultural exports in Pachia Ammos within the north of Crete.
In Chania, on the north-west coast, a light-weight rain mixed with the dust to land as mud on houses, cars and streets.
Amber warnings will remain in place on Crete and quite a few eastern islands tomorrow, while yellow warnings proceed to cover much of the mainland.
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