'Calima' and rain is forecast for the south of Spain, with a big red dust cloud coming from the Sahara desert

The weather forecast brings some concerning news to the Andalucía region of southern Spain this week. With Easter just around the corner, the next few days will be marked with the arrival of strong 'calima' haze of Saharan desert sand from North Africa and the formation of a Dana (high level depression at a high altitude) in the southwest of the Spanish mainland that could bring rain in the middle of the week. Additionally, maximum temperatures will continue to be higher than normal for this time of year, with highs close to 30C.

The major talking point will undoubtedly be the appearance of an episode of calima. «From Monday onwards there will be dust in suspension in Andalucía and the atmosphere will be hazy,» José Miguel Viñas, meteorologist at Meteored, told SUR's sister newspaper Ideal. However, as the days go by, the situation will not improve but will get worse: «Thursday will be the most important day in terms of the dust haze. I wouldn't be surprised if it were an episode of a similar intensity to the one we had two years ago,» Viñas added.

This would cause the skies to turn red again, something that could very likely happen because the situation will be «very similar» to then, with a Dana and associated storm in the Gulf of Cadiz area and a drought situation in the north of Morocco, which will lead to «quite a lot of dust» in the atmosphere.

Calima apart, on Wednesday there will be a change in the weather in the region due to the formation of a trough in the southwest of the Spanish mainland prior to the formation of the Dana. «There could be stormy showers almost anywhere in Andalucía that day», warned Viñas. However, the weather models indicate that from Thursday onwards the rain and storms will cease.

As far as temperatures are concerned, they will remain at a high of around 30C for practically the whole week. «There will be a slight drop on Wednesday, but once the Dana moves southwards, temperatures will rise again to around 28 degrees», concluded the Meteored expert.