Florida on alert after massive Saharan dust cloud clobbers Caribbean — air quality will suffer, experts say
A mammoth cloud of Saharan dust, roughly the size of the continental U.S., is barreling across the Atlantic and expected to smother parts of the Sunshine State in a rusty haze this week.
The gritty gift from North Africa has already blanketed the Caribbean — and now it's Florida's turn to breathe it in.
'It's the biggest one we've had so far this season,' Jason Dunion, a meteorologist who monitors hurricanes and Saharan dust, told the New York Times in an interview over the weekend
He likened the thick layer to a 'London fog' with a 'brilliant orange glow' at sunset.
By the time the 5,000-mile trans-Atlantic traveler reaches the Gulf Coast — from Florida to Texas — it'll lose some of its bite, but residents can still expect surreal sepia-toned skies, muggy heat and a spike in allergy attacks.
The dusty invasion may look apocalyptic, but it's all part of Earth's strange seasonal ritual.
Between mid-June and late July, massive waves of superheated air over the Sahara launch particles sky-high, where winds from the African Easterly Jet blast them westward.
And it even has a name: the Saharan Air Layer, according to Fox 35.
'It's like rinse and repeat every year, it's part of a normal cycle of Earth's oscillations,' Sammy Hadi, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Miami, told The Times.
Although this isn't anything for people to fret about, the Saharan Air Layer weakens air quality, which will make going outside especially difficult for those with asthma or breathing issues.
However, the surrounding dust does make for stunning picture-worthy sunrises and sunsets.
And while Saharan dust may coat your car like it's been parked in a construction zone, it will make for fewer rain storms — which can be both a good and bad thing.
'There's a lot of dry air, and you don't feel that dry air, but the clouds feel it because as they grow and form thunderstorms, they run into that dry air and they just collapse,' Dunion dished to The Times. 'They get stifled.'
Dust suppresses tropical storm formation by robbing the atmosphere of the moisture it needs to spawn serious weather. In other words: it's not just dirty — it's doing duty.
That's good news for hurricane-watchers but not great news for everyone else, because typically the rain helps wash away all the sand and dust. So, without it — all of it just lingers in the air.
Experts say the dust storms typically die down by August and September.
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