Yesterday the BBC explained that a high pressure zone over eastern Europe was bringing polluted air in on a southeast wind, picking up what smells like a sharp and acrid sulphurous dusty mess from the Ruhr. The same wind picked up desert dust from the Sahara and carried it straight across Europe. The dust has arrived with the dew and has formed a sandy smudge all over everybody’s car: it’s most obvious where the wetting has collected it towards edges of roof panels, as in the photo. Today the forecast is for very poor air quality, at warning levels 8 or 9 (out of 10 for worst possible), making life uncomfortable for asthma sufferers. The map shows it stretching from the tip of Kent in the southeast all across England to Dorset in the west, the Wash in the northeast and the North Wales coast in the northwest. Levels are ‘Very High’ along the south coast and up to Cardiff, and in a patch in the midlands.