Rare orange snow in Europe brings sepia photo filter to life
Slopes resembled desert dunes after dust caused snow in eastern Europe to turn orange in regions of Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria.
Meteorologists said the orange phenomenon is from dust that blew into the atmosphere from the Saharan and Arabian deserts during a sandstorm.
"Last week the jet stream dipped southward across Europe and into northern Africa. This caused the storm track to also be farther south with a series of storms crossing the Mediterranean Sea," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Eric Leister said.
Leister said the final storm in this series tracked far enough south that dust from northern Africa was pulled into the storm.
"When the storm then tracked into parts of eastern Europe and Russia, snow falling from the storm contained the dust from Africa, leaving the orange color," Leister said.
The Rosa Khutor Resort in Sochi, which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics, was blanketed in orange-tinted snow.
Many social media users said the unusual orange snow-covered mountains resembled a Mars-like landscape or sepia photo filter.
(Image via Instagram/margarita_alshina)
(Image via Instagram/margarita_alshina)
(Image via Instagram/margarita_alshina)
(Image via Instagram/margarita_alshina)
(Image via Instagram/katrin.jd)
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