'It's Hard to Breathe': Crete Wrapped in Red Veil as Sand Storm Hits Greece

The island of Crete was wrapped in an eerie red veil on Wednesday, April 1, as a powerful dust storm kicked sand from the Sahara toward Greece. Frank Regan’s footage, captured in Hersonissos between 2 pm and 5:30 pm, shows the sky rapidly turning from orange to bright red as the sand storm neared the coastal town. “Never seen anything like this in my life!” Regan wrote to X. “We have just been obliterated here in Crete with the worst sandstorm ever. Everything is Orange, the Sky and the Ocean. It’s hard to breathe, and you can taste it!” he said. According to the World Meteorological Organization, the storm traveled from the south of Algeria all the way to Spain’s Canary Islands, “disrupting transport routes and affecting air quality across West and North Africa.” Satellite imagery also shows dust traveling eastward and passing over southern Greek islands, Libya, and Egypt.