The Story
It’s tough to be enthused about hot weather without feeling like a small character in Don’t Look Up who isn’t paying attention to the coming asteroid. It’s much more difficult when a heatwave is followed by something as ominous as “blood rain.”
Well, good news for the UK, because both are about to hit. After a heat wave that will bring the hottest temperatures of the year, blood rain could fall on the country on Friday.
Blood rain is characterized by its distinctive crimson hue, which originates from the comparatively large amounts of red dust or particles that are found in the precipitation. The Met Office claims that the phrase “blood rain” is only a slang word and “is not actually a meteorological or scientific term.”
Although dust is uncommon in the United Kingdom, it may be imported to the island on occasion. The blood rain (if it happens during the storm) in this scenario will be generated by a cloud of Saharan dust that has made its way across the Mediterranean. It is scheduled to arrive Friday morning.
CAMS said in a release, “Aerosol forecasts from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) saw another large plume of Saharan dust moving west across the Atlantic between May 12 and 17 and heading towards the Caribbean.”
“The smoke is also expected to hit Western Europe on May 20 and 21. CAMS statistics track the movement of dust every year and at every stage. This year has shown and continues to show high amounts of dust movement across the Mediterranean and parts of Europe.
The rain
Even if it doesn’t rain, the clouds in the UK and the Caribbean, if the storm makes it that far, could be a strange shade of red.
“Most of the dust movement is likely to be at higher altitudes,” Mark Parrington, Senior Scientist for the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, told Mail Online. This could cause hazy skies instead of affecting the air quality near the ground. “It could also be mixed with rain, which is also predicted for Friday. After the rain has stopped, there could be surface deposits on cars.”
Fun Fact
“Octopus Rain”. It’s pouring cats and dogs” may be an idiom used to describe heavy rain, but last week at a seaside city in northeast China, it was so heavy that animals began to fall from the sky. The organisms in this instance were from the sea.
The sea and its creatures are not new to the Chinese city of Qingdao. Even octopuses, shrimp, and crabs are often seen around the coastal city. But it is extremely rare to see them falling from the sky.
As a sea storm moved through the city, people were surprised to see animals fall out of the sky with the rain. The shocking pictures, which have become popular on Chinese social media, show sea creatures falling from the sky.
