What is blood rain and is it coming to London?

As you've probably noticed, it's been pretty darn hot in London these last few days. In fact, temperatures stayed above 22 degrees yesterday evening, making it the hottest night in London for 10 years.

But the sunshine isn't the only unusual weather phenomenon that's been happening on these shores. There's also been a lot of talk about the sinister-sounding 'blood rain' (not to be confused with chocolate rain). It sounds like something that might coincide with an apocalypse, but it's actually caused by that pesky Saharan dust, which made an appearance in London last time we had a sunny spell.

When dust from the Sahara desert is blown into the atmosphere it can cause rain to turn red, but 'blood rain' sounds way more impressive than 'red rain'. Although they don't technically call it blood rain (there's no official term for the weird weather), the Met Office has said that it could be hitting parts of the south-west, the Midlands and north of England today. It looks like London's safe for now, but if the skies start to turn a sinister shade of red, don't panic, it's probably just a spot of blood rain.

Remember all this weird weather we had last year?