In late March 2018, a large part of the Eastern Mediterranean experienced an extraordinary episode of African dust, one of the most intense in recent years, here referred to as the "Minoan Red" event. The episode mainly affected the Greek island of Crete, where the highest aerosol concentrations over the past 15 yeas were recorded, although impacts were also felt well beyond this core area. Our study fills a gap in dust research by assessing the multi-sectoral impacts of sand and dust storms and their socioeconomic implications. Specifically, we provide a multi-sectoral impact assessment of Crete during the occurrence of this exceptional African dust event. During the day of the occurrence of the maximum dust concentration in Crete, i.e. March 22nd, 2018, we identified impacts on meteorological conditions, agriculture, transport, energy, society (including closing of schools and cancellation of social events), and emergency response systems. As a result, the event led to a 3-fold increase in daily emergency responses compare to previous days associated with urban emergencies and wildfires, a 3.5-fold increase in hospital visits and admissions for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) exacerbations and dyspnoea, a reduction of visibility causing aircraft traffic disruptions (eleven cancellations and seven delays), and a reduction of solar energy production. We estimate the cost of direct and indirect effects of the dust episode, considering the most affected socio-economic sectors (e.g. civil protection, aviation, health and solar energy production), to be between 3.4 and 3.8 million EUR for Crete. Since such desert dust transport episodes are natural, meteorology-driven and thus to a large extent unavoidable, we argue that the efficiency of actions to mitigate dust impacts depends on the accuracy of operational dust forecasting and the implementation of relevant early warning systems for social awareness.

Agricultural University of Iceland Keldnaholt 112 Reykjavik Iceland; Faculty of Environmental Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague 165 21 Czech Republic

Barcelona Supercomputing Center Barcelona Spain

Barcelona Supercomputing Center Barcelona Spain; ICREA Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies Barcelona Spain

CESAM and Department of Environment and Planning University of Aveiro Aveiro Portugal

Climate and Atmosphere Research Center The Cyprus Institute Nicosia 2121 Cyprus

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Istituto di Metodologie per l'Analisi Ambientale Italy

Dept of Glaciology Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences Russia; Faculty of Geography and Geoinformation Technologies National Research University Higher School of Economics Russia

Dept of Governance and Technology for Sustainability University of Twente Enschede Netherlands; Climate Change and Society Finnish Meteorological Institute Helsinki Finland

Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory Chemistry Department University of Crete 70013 Heraklion Greece

Finnish Meteorological Institute Climate Research 00101 Helsinki Finland

IAASARS National Observatory of Athens 15236 Athens Greece

IAASARS National Observatory of Athens 15236 Athens Greece; Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory Chemistry Department University of Crete 70013 Heraklion Greece

Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research Barcelona Spain; School of Tropical Medicine and Global Health Nagasaki University Nagasaki Japan

Institute of Environmental Research and Sustainable Development National Observatory of Athens Greece

Institute of Environmental Research and Sustainable Development National Observatory of Athens Greece; Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory Chemistry Department University of Crete 70013 Heraklion Greece

Institute of Polar Sciences National Research Council of Italy Milano Italy

National Hydrometeorological Service Belgrade Serbia

Physikalisch Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos World Radiation Center Switzerland

Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy Belgium Brussels

Schmid College of Science and Technology Chapman University Orange CA 92866 USA; Department of Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science Alexandria University Alexandria 21522 Egypt

School of Medicine and University Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine University of Crete 70013 Heraklion Greece

St Anne's College University of Oxford Oxford OX2 6HS United Kingdom

State Meteorological Agency of Spain AEMET Barcelona Spain

ZAMG Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik Wien Austria

Citace poskytuje Crossref.org

Impact of Saharan dust on particulate matter characteristics in an urban and a natural locality in Central Europe