A thick desert sand haze over the Maltese Islands during the day whereby visibility was reduced to just 1500 metres at its peak. The first thumbnail shows the visible satellite imagery confirming the thick haze around Malta due to a sand storm that developed over the Sahara desert. The desert storm itself was caused by a large upper trough towards Western Spain directing a cold Atlantic air flow towards NW Africa. Upon reaching the African coast, this cold air has met the hot desert air causing a low pressure over the area which then generated very strong wind over the desert eventually blowing the sand towards the Maltese Islands via SW wind. The upper-level low is shown in the third thumbnail while the second thumbnail indicate the surface wind. In the second thumbnail notice the sharp difference in wind and temperature over NW Africa which later in the day was the foci for the development of mid-level thunderstorms from Ac castellanus that passed over the Maltese Islands and which was explained in the previous photo. The fourth thumbnail shows the actual Sea Level Pressure on the day and the fifth thumbnail shows the weather sounding of the day that indicated hostile conditions for cloud formation except for very high clouds. The radiation inversion is due to the warm SW wind travelling over a cooler sea.