ORANGE skies and layers of dust filtering down from the clouds indicated a rare meteorological phenomenon in across the south of England this afternoon.

Thurrock-based photographer Rob Lay was one of many to capture images of the sand laden clouds that drifted over the borough for several hours, leaving a trail of dust in their wake.

The cause of the colouration of the sky was a Saharan dust cloud due to a storm system near Spain which swept up particles of sand and carried them hundreds of miles across the continent.

Explaining why the sky turns colour, Met Office forecaster Richard Miles said: "The orange effect is caused by something known as the 'Rayleigh scattering', which is the same effect that gives you the blue sky.

"The additional dust will scatter the blue light and create more red light effects which gives sunsets their distinctive colour.

"So the more layers of dust in the atmosphere the right conditions will give you orange and red tints to the sky."

Cars and windows gave the clearest evidence of the dust dropped from the coulds over a period of hours but rains later in the afternoon and early evening washed much of the dust away.