An eerie weather phenomenon across parts of the United Kingdom is turning the skies an anemic yellow color and making the sun appear blood red.
The anomaly is not the beginning of the end of days or a sign of the apocalypse, scientists said. Instead, it’s directly related to Hurricane Ophelia, which is whipping through the region.
The storm's tropical air dragged in dust from the Sahara Desert and air pollution from wildfires in Spain and Portugal as it moved north through the Atlantic, creating the strange spectacle, the BBC reported.
Credit: David Vincent
Credit: David Vincent
"The dust gets picked up into the air and goes high up into the atmosphere, and that dust has been dragged high up in the atmosphere above the UK," BBC weatherman Simon King said, according to the Express.
The blood-red sun Monday morning across the region is a result of the same weather phenomenon creating the yellow skies, according to the U.K.'s Meteorological Office or Met Office.
"The same southerly winds that have brought us the current warmth have also drawn dust from the Sahara to our latitudes and the dust scatters the blue light from the sun letting more red light through much as at sunrise or sunset," Met officials said on the agency's website.
Social media users in London chronicled the spectacle on Twitter.
Spooky skies #Ophelia #clouds #london #atmosphere #storm #winds #yellow #brown #nofilter pic.twitter.com/CH2nCbqbHQ
🌙 (@tyrannopaulus)
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