A thick coat of dust darkened a stack of plastic chairs growing more cockeyed as they ascended a stucco wall.
A return to urban grandeur seemed such a foreign concept in a place where thick dust darkened the day, and floodlights gave night an eerie brightness.
The usual congestion of traffic dissipated as a dust storm darkened the city at midday, creating a sense of gloom rather than celebration.
The meteorite that plowed into Earth 65 million years ago created all sorts of havoc: It threw up dust that darkened the planet for months, loaded the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, obliterated the protective ozone layer, sparked massive wildfires, triggered tsunamis, and drenched the lands with acid rain.
Mr. Ridha slapped its cover twice, sending plumes of dust through his darkened shop.
The dust that was darkening the brilliant whiteness of the snow was heating up in the strong sun and melting the snow and ice, she said.
According to Danish glaciologist Jason Box, who heads the Dark Snow project to measure the effect of dust and other darkening agents on Greenland's ice sheet, Arctic ice sheet reflectivity has been at a near record low for much of 2014.
Beijing was then a sea of bicycles, and thick coal dust in the air darkened both shirt collars and the sky.
Ice sheets are already being darkened by dust, soot, and ash, which hasten melting and add nutrients on which algae can flourish.
But for many of us, the scenes we'd witnessed live were more reminiscent of the film Independence Day, but without the mother ship: the innocuous sunshine gradually darkened by dust clouds; the stunned incomprehension and initial uncertainty about how to react; the rising tension.
