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A rare weather phenomenon known as calima is set to sweep across parts of Europe, hitting major holiday hotspots with ‘blood rain’ possible, leaving dramatic orange-coated scenes

Brits could be battered by ‘blood rain’ during a rare weather phenomenon set to engulf parts of Europe.

A Saharan dust cloud is set to sweep across parts of Spain and the Balearic Islands, hitting major holiday hotspots such as Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza. The phenomenon, known as Calima, is being driven by a high-altitude, isolated depression (DANA) that is transporting large amounts of sand from Morocco and Mauritania into southern Europe.

Instead of basking in the Spanish heat, tourists face the prospect of orange-tinted dust, hazy skies and reduced visibility. The Spanish weather agency, AEMET, also warned that calima “worsens air quality due to microscopic particles, which can reach the respiratory tract”.

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Holidaymakers and locals should also brace themselves for “blood rain,” which occurs when the orange dust is mixed with rain. Heavy rain has been predicted for parts of Spain, which could result in thick layers of dust engulfing the Spanish hotspots, dramatically changing the scene, leaving cars scattered with dust and murky swimming pools.

The weather is forecast to be worse in the southeast parts of Spain, along the Mediterranean coast and the Balearic Islands. The AEMET issued a weather warning on X, formerly Twitter, and said: “Very adverse weather in the Canary Islands: showers that could be very heavy, today accompanied by storms in the eastern islands; very strong wind gusts; rough seas.”

The agency noted on Sunday that the “weather is expected to improve.” The phenomenon has also brought an unusually warm air mass, with soaring temperatures up to 25C in southeastern regions and the Canary Islands, and Bilbao hitting a blistering 27C in February.

This isn’t the first time the Canary Islands have experienced a calima, including Lanzarote, which typically occurs during the winter months. The calima is a hot, oppressive wind that arises when high pressure builds over the Sahara, subsequently driving winds that carry Saharan temperatures and sand.

Explaining further, Lanzarote Information said: “During a calima, the air turns a white or even a yellow colour and you can literally smell the sand in the air from the Desert.

“Visibility is reduced, and there’s a kind of otherworldly quality to the light. Often strange insects accompany the winds – in recent years we have had locusts, ladybirds and dragonflies that arrive on the island.

“They rarely last for very long here, as there is so little for them to eat due to the desert nature of Lanzarote. Sometimes unusual birds are blown over on the wind as well, so look out for them.”

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A deadly exchange of drone strikes has killed one person in Ukraine and one in Russia and cast doubts on the prospects of a ceasefire before another round of negotiations to end the war next week.

News of the deaths comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio signalled hurdles to reaching an agreement in Geneva as the conflict is about to enter its fifth year.

Zelenskyy told world leaders at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday while he hopes “substantive” progress will be reached during the trilateral meeting next week, it often feels like the two sides “are talking about different things” in negotiations. 

“The Americans often return to the topic of concessions, and too often those concessions are discussed only in the context of Ukraine, not Russia,” Zelenskyy said.

Rubio said it’s unclear if Moscow truly wants to make a peace deal.

“We don’t know if the Russians are serious about ending the war,” he said before the same Munich event. “We’re going to continue to test it.”

Among the most contentious issues in the negotiations is Russia’s demand for a full withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the remaining parts of Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk that it still controls.

Ukraine has rejected a unilateral pullback and wants Western security guarantees to deter Russia from relaunching its invasion if a ceasefire is reached.

Rubio did not attend a Ukraine-focused meeting with European and NATO leaders held on the sidelines of the first day of the Munich conference on Friday, citing scheduling issues.

In Munich on Saturday, Zelenskyy insisted Russia should not get away with its attack on Ukraine. He said he hoped the United States would stay involved in the peace negotiations and European countries would deepen their involvement.

Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel told Al Jazeera while US President Donald Trump should be credited with moving talks forward, he should put more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin instead of Zelenskyy.

“Putin has shown no goodwill to come to the table and make a serious deal. The Ukrainians are ready,” van Weel said.

Last week, Zelenskyy said the US had given the warring parties a June deadline to reach a deal, although Trump’s previous ultimatums have not resulted in a breakthrough.

Two previous rounds of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, led by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, reportedly focused on military issues such as a possible buffer zone and ceasefire monitoring.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, according to many estimates, making the war Europe’s deadliest since World War II.

Russia ⁠is ⁠suffering “crazy losses” in Ukraine with about 65,000 soldiers killed on the battlefield ⁠over the last two months, NATO ⁠Secretary-General Mark Rutte told the conference.

Separately, ‌Rutte told a media roundtable the NATO alliance is strong enough that Russia would not ⁠currently try to attack it. “We ⁠will win every fight with Russia if they ⁠attack us now, and we ⁠have to ⁠make sure in two, four, six years that same ‌is still the case.”

Among the latest casualties was an elderly woman killed on Saturday when a Russian drone hit a residential building in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.

On Wednesday, Russian strikes also killed three children, including two-year-old twins and their father in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.

In January alone, Russia launched more than 6,000 drone attacks against Ukraine, according to Zelenskyy. But he added Ukraine will soon produce enough interceptors to make Russia’s Iran-made Shahed drones “meaningless”.

He also told the Munich conference that every power plant in Ukraine has been damaged in Russian attacks.

In Russia, a civilian was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on a car in the border region of Bryansk, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

The attacks came a day after a Ukrainian missile strike on the Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine killed two people and wounded five, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Gladkov earlier said the attack also caused serious damage to energy facilities and electricity, heating and water supplies were cut off. Three apartment buildings in the city sustained damage, he said.

Ukrainian member of parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko, meanwhile, accused Moscow of launching “energy terror” with attacks on electricity facilities in the heart of winter.

“I can’t call it any other way because when it is minus 20 Celsius in Kyiv and you don’t have heating, you don’t have electricity in your apartment, you’re just freezing and that is awful,” Goncharenko told Al Jazeera in Munich.

“I think it’s time for the United States to put real pressure on Russia. Yes, they are at the table, but it’s time to put real pressure to make them have real negotiations, because what we have today is not real negotiations.”