It began last Saturday — a dense plume of dust and sand blowing from the Sahara Desert and out over Atlantic.
The sky over Spain’s Canary Islands soon turned from blue to tan — and then conditions deteriorated as a second plume of dust washed over the islands. Visibility plummeted to just tens of meters in some places. That, combined with strong winds gusting to 75 mph, forced airports to close and nearly 800 flights to be cancelled or rerouted.
