Public health advisories are being issued in response to dust hazard the size of US heading toward Florida

Saharan Dust – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by Daineko Natalia

This week, Florida is expected to be slammed by a huge dust plume the size of the United States that is traveling across the Atlantic Ocean.

Strong winds swept small sand and mineral particles from the surface of the Sahara Desert, creating the dust cloud.

As the dust rolls across the Caribbean, Puerto Rican officials have already alerted citizens to the terrible quality of the air.

“Peak concentrations of Sahara dust from this event are rolling in and arriving in the next few hours,” the National Weather Service warned the island.

Residents may notice dust hanging in the air earlier than expected, but the cloud is expected to reach South Florida by Wednesday and the Gulf States a few days later.

Because it contains small particles that can irritate the lungs, experts caution that it can make breathing difficult, particularly for those who have asthma, allergies, or other respiratory conditions.

As of Monday, the cloud stretched around 750 miles from the Turks and Caicos Islands in the north to Trinidad and Tobago in the south, and 2,000 miles from Jamaica to well past Barbados in the eastern Caribbean.

“It’s really amazing,” said AccuWeather’s lead storm analyst Alex DaSilva.

According to DaSilva, the plume probably lost the majority of its concentration in the eastern Caribbean, but it is still heading toward the US.

“Those islands usually experience more of an impact, more of a concentration where it can occasionally actually block out the sun,” he continued.

According to Florida scientists, the sky are a little foggy this morning.

“Usually we have nice blue skies, but with the dust, the whole sky looks soft and warm because the particles themselves are red,” Joseph Prospero, professor emeritus at the University of Miami Center for Aerosol Science and Technology, told The New York Times.

“Everything appears subdued,” he continued.

The Saharan Air Layer is a layer of dry, dusty air that forms over Africa’s Sahara Desert and travels west across the Atlantic Ocean from April to October.

Strong winds blow across the Sahara every summer due to seasonal weather patterns like high-pressure systems and the West African Monsoon.

These winds carry aeolian dust, which is made up of microscopic particles, into the atmosphere.

In the meantime, the dust is transported across the ocean by the continuous east-to-west winds generated by the Bermuda-Azores High, a high-pressure system across the Atlantic Ocean.

Additionally, during the Atlantic hurricane season, which lasts from June 1 to November 30, it stops tropical waves from forming.

According to DaSilva, dust concentrations are typically maximum in June and July, with plumes rising between 5,000 and 20,000 feet above the ground.

The ‘Godzilla plume,’ a huge cloud of Saharan dust, moved across the Atlantic from West Africa in June 2020, causing foggy skies from Texas to the Carolinas.

Reduced visibility and air quality alerts were issued in several states, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) described it as the greatest incident in almost 50 years.

Another heavy Saharan dust storm hit Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi in July 2023, causing the skies to turn orange and the air quality in places like Miami and Houston to become “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”

The plume this year is distinct because it is sooner, denser, more concentrated, and contains more fine particles.

Consequently, meteorologists and health experts are closely monitoring its effects.

Although the size and severity of these dust clouds fluctuate from year to year, experts think that more frequent and potent plumes could be a result of changing wind patterns and climate change.


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