It’s hard to get enthused about hot weather without feeling like a small character in Don’t Look Up who isn’t paying attention to the impending asteroid. It’s much more difficult when a heat wave is followed by “blood rain,” which sounds apocalyptic good news for the United Kingdom since you’re going to get struck by both. Blood rain might drench the country on Friday, following a scorching wave that will see temperatures reach their highest this year.
The crimson hue of blood rain is created by comparatively large concentrations of red dust or particles in the water. “Blood rain” is a colloquial word, according to the Met Office, and “is not truly a meteorological or scientific term.” Dust is rarely observed in the UK, however, it can be transferred to the island on occasion. A cloud of dust from the Sahara, after making its way over the Mediterranean, will generate blood rain in this event (should rain coincide with the storm passing over the UK). It will be delivered on Friday morning.
“The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) noticed another big plume of Saharan dust travelling west over the Atlantic between 12 & 17 May and heading towards the Caribbean,” CAMS stated in a statement. “On the 20th and 21st of May, the plume is expected to reach Western Europe. Every year and at all phases, CAMS statistics track dust transport, noting that this year has seen, and continues to see, significant levels of dust movement over the Mediterranean and portions of Europe.”
Even if it doesn’t rain, the UK – and the Caribbean, if the storm crosses the Atlantic – might witness exceptionally crimson sky. Mark Parrington, Senior Scientist for the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, told Mail Online that “much of the dust movement is anticipated to occur at higher altitudes, which might contribute to hazy skies rather than effects on surface air quality.” “It might also be combined with rain, which is also expected on Friday, so there could be surface deposits on automobiles once the rain has stopped.”
