In Skopje-Petrovec, 37.6 degrees were measured yesterday. In Veles 36.6. In Tetovo 35.7, in Shtip 35.6, in Ohrid 35.3. And on top of all that - a layer of Saharan dust that turned the sky into a yellowish membrane through which the sun looked like a pale outline.

The hot air mass comes directly from Africa, and with it arrives dust that reduces visibility and makes the air thick. Meteorologists say the condition will hold through the extended weekend - 29 and 30 August - alongside temperatures reaching up to 40 degrees in places.

In Ohrid, where the daily maximum was 35.3 degrees, the dust settled over the lake and the shoreline. At 17:00 it was still 34.7. This is the town that hits its seasonal peak in the last week of August - and that is exactly the picture the tourists took home with them.

The appeal that repeats every year

Meteorologist Slavcho Poposki recommends that citizens avoid staying outdoors unnecessarily between 11:00 and 17:00 and take in enough fluids. The same advice repeated every summer, in the same words, as if nothing changes from one year to the next.

What is missing is a different question: what are the institutions doing about the workers who have to be outside during those hours? On construction sites, in the fields, in municipal services, on delivery routes. An appeal to citizens to stay home is free - a ban on heavy outdoor work during the hottest hours would cost something, and that is precisely why it does not exist.

The fine particles in the air are not only an aesthetic problem. They are a physical burden on breathing, especially for older people and for those with respiratory conditions. On that, the daily forecast carries not a single line - only temperatures, wind and advice to drink water.