People in many areas of the Alps and Pyrenees Saturday have been witnessing 'orange snow.' According to people in the mountains, the Alps have had a few snowstorms but now pictures of sandstorms have been circulating across social media platforms.

According to PlanetSKI, “Strong winds in Africa have taken sand into the sky, atmospheric air currents have taken it northwards and when it hits the mountain ranges of Europe down it comes.” This phenomenon is not considered rare, as it actually happens a few times in the winter time, but not as widespread as this time.

Kevin Young who lives near Chamonix shared saying, “Today I went ski touring on Mars. There are no filters on these photos just a natural sepia filter courtesy of some Saharan sand blowing in the wind. Nature can be very strange sometimes.”

Shona Tate from the BASS ski school in Chamonix said, that it is “A bit like dooms day here today…it’s raining Sahara Sand.”

Similar conditions have been reported in Val d’Isere and the Valais area of Switzerland.

Another person described the scene as “A cloud of Sahara sands swept through our mountains this morning creating that very unusual yellow hue”.