Canadian wildfire smoke drifted into the southeastern U.S. but did it make it to South Florida?
Whether the murk was smoke from Canadian wildfires wafting south, Saharan dust, a steamy mix of tropical water vapor and heat, or a combination of all of the above, was up for some debate.
Ana Torres-Vazques, a meteorologist with the NWS in Miami, analyzed what was happening in the atmosphere on June 2 when visibilities at the Boca Raton Airport were down to 2 miles.
She said even a wildfire in Monroe County could have contributed to the morning miasma.
'Could it be the Canadian fires?,' she said in a discussion on an NWS website. 'Direct, definitive attribution is tricky.'
But she surmised the most likely cause was a thin layer of Saharan dust and light southwesterly breezes blowing in smoke from the so-called Sandy wildfire in Monroe.
And while Saharan dust is known to dry out the atmosphere, diminishing rainfall and thunderstorms, it's not expected to squash heavy rainfall through Wednesday that is forecast to bring nearly 4 inches of rain to coastal Palm Beach County and up to 6.5 inches in southern Miami Dade County.
Most of the rain is expected to fall Monday and Tuesday.
Weather Prediction Center meteorologist Tony Fracasso blamed a stubborn front draped over Central and South Florida for the potentially heavy rainfall.
More: Hurricane season 2025: New forecast calls for above normal season but questions remain
'There is pretty much always a lot of moisture around Florida so the front acts as a mechanism to focus that rainfall,' Fracasso said.
May ended almost normal for rainfall in West Palm Beach with 4.3 inches as measured at Palm Beach International Airport, but the area is down 8.6 inches for the year. Most of Palm Beach is considered in severe to extreme drought by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Meteorologists are also watching the tropics as hurricane season began Sunday, June 1.
Michael Lowry, a hurricane expert with South Florida ABC-TV affiliate WPLG-Channel 10, said the Atlantic is 'closed for business' for the next week to week and a half with harsh upper-level winds and Saharan dust squashing potential tropical development.
That changes closer to the middle of the month as the Madden Julian Oscillation — a travelling pulse of storms that can incite tropical cyclones — crosses into the Atlantic.
'We should see a configuration that'll favor storminess around Central America by late next week into the weekend of June 14,' Lowry said in Eye on the Tropics column. 'Stay aware, stay informed, and be ready for your one, should this year be the one.'
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Canadian wildfire smoke and Saharan dust suspected in South Florida haze
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