THE DAY CYPRUS' MOUNTAINS VANISHED - Cy Mail 22/5 by Morgan West
On April 3, 2026, something very strange happened in Cyprus.
Schools cancelled activities. Construction ceased overnight. And the mountains – both Troodos and Kyrenia – simply vanished.“Aha, the heat!” I can hear you thinking.
But no. This time it wasn’t soaring temperatures. The mercury was clocking a fairly steady 20 degrees Celsius – enough to fry fragile tourists, but just a pleasant spring day for us heat-hardened locals.
At the same time, pharmacies began to report a massive increase in sales of masks.
Was COVID back? After all, island-wide, there were complaints of headaches, exhaustion, sore throats.
But no. It wasn’t a virus – nobody (that we know of) had kissed a bat.
Instead, as Cyprus’ hills disappeared, cars went orange and the air itself began to taste strange, the culprit became clear.
Dust.
Concentrations reached 1,167 micrograms per cubic metre in Nicosia, 793.8 in Paphos, and an astonishing 2,047 in Ayia Marina Xyliatou. Which means levels were 40 times higher than the EU’s daily safety limit!
Now, hang on. Cyprus has always had dust storms. Older generations remember orange skies drifting in from the Sahara – days when the horizon vanished and yiayia brought the washing inside.
But they were occasional. Not regular, as they are now.
Because today, dust storms over Cyprus are anything but rare.
The island had remarkably high levels not just in April, but in mid-February and the end of January. Last March, a low-pressure system brought dust skies for almost a week. Before that we had dust storms in January 2025, April 2024, February 2024, December 2023…
Dust is usually worst in winter and spring as low-pressure systems and seasonal winds sweep dust northwards from North Africa and the Middle East.
And it’s increasing. According to dustincyprus the number of dust days in the Eastern Mediterranean has soared since the late 1950s and is expected to rise further as climate change intensifies desertification and drought across the region.
And, here in Cyprus, there’s not a lot we can do about it. (Except plant more trees: vegetation traps airborne particles).
Because this isn’t OUR dust; we’re just in the path of the storm. And that storm is increasingly dangerous…
Pulmonologists have said that every particulate matter increase of 10 micrograms per cubic metre is associated with around a one-per cent increase in hospital admissions overall, and a 1.2-per cent increase in cardiovascular admissions. They’ve warned that this isn’t simply ‘sand’ – it’s also pollutants, heavy metals, bacteria and microscopic debris. And they’ve cautioned that vulnerable groups (kids, our elderly, anyone with heart or respiratory conditions) are being increasingly affected.
Just last weekend, dust from North Africa prompting fresh warnings.
But the Great Big Dust Plume that caused the extreme conditions has gone, and this weekend we’re likely to have a fresher time of it…
Nicosia starts Friday with showers and breezy conditions before settling into a pleasant weekend of partly sunny skies and temperatures between 24°C and 26°C – though feeling hotter.
Along the coast, Limassol stays steady around 24-25 degrees with sunshine, gusty winds and the occasional shower. Larnaca and Ayia Napa remain breezy and humid, but should enjoy plenty of bright spells by Sunday and Monday (though there is a chance of rain next week).
Paphos follows a similar pattern: slightly unsettled at first, then warming into a bright and comfortable start to next week with temperatures around 24 degrees.
And Troodos, naturally, remains cool, damp and occasionally rainy, with temperatures dropping to around 5°C overnight before recovering to the mid-teens by Monday.
In short: a little rain, a little wind, plenty of sunshine and, for now at least, considerably less dust. Those hazy days are mainly a winter and spring thing; the worst of it is probably over.
All we have to worry about now are the searing summer temperatures. And then, after the ground-baking heat, our annual autumnal flash floods. The weather in Cyprus is never boring!
