"In February a huge cloud of Sahara dust crossed the Mediterranean into Central Europe. It created "red" snow in the Italian Alps and muddy rain across Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary and Czech Rep. leaving ugly mud marks on cars.
Next day as the clouds parted a ~ 25 degree radius, spectacular Bishop's ring appeared around the Sun. In the evening the stars were very dim, Jupiter seemed to be not brighter than 0 magnitude (instead of -2), I could not see the Pleiades and the belt of Orion.
Usually the first dust arrives here in April and we might get some more events until early August, but it is rare to have such a dusty Saharan air mass reach Central Europe so out of season."
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