Brutal Saharan dust storm set to blanket Florida as plume drifts over Atlantic amid allergy warnings
Floridians are bracing for a massive dust cloud from the Sahara Desert that's drifting over the Atlantic Ocean. It could impact allergies and irritate eyes
Floridians are being told to brace for a massive dust cloud from the Sahara Desert that could land over the weekend, according to radar.
Dust is forecast to hit the south and central regions of the Sunshine State on Saturday and stay for several days, CBS Miami's NEXT Weather radar indicated. Computer models show a much larger and denser plume that could hit Florida in the middle of next week, too, according to WKMG. Dust could even move to Texas on Monday.
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands already saw dust this week, according to the National Weather Service in San Juan, which reported the phenomenon on Tuesday.
Dust impacts reduced visibility and created hazy skies, it said. More dust was forecast to sweep in on Saturday and linger through Tuesday.
Most of the Atlantic's tropical waters had dust over them as of Thursday, radar and satellite images show. A massive cloud of it spanned all the way from the African coast to the Gulf, according to the National Hurricane Center's Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch via an X post.
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The dry air suppresses the development of storms, it added. Meanwhile, hurricane season officially starts on Sunday. But why is all the Saharan dust moving across the Atlantic?
It's not uncommon for such a phenomenon to occur. Every year in the early summer, dust moves across the Atlantic. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it's called the Saharan Air Layer, which is described as "a mass of very dry, dusty air that forms over the Sahara Desert during the late spring, summer and early fall."
It typically "ramps up" in the middle of June before peaking from late in the month to the middle of August, Jason Dunion, a meteorologist, told NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service in 2020.
New "outbreaks" of the effect are formed when "ripples" in the atmosphere along the edge of the desert kick up dust. They can occur every few days and have been known to reach as far west as Florida and Texas.
Sometimes, dust covers areas over the Atlantic as large as the continental U.S., Dunion added. The NWS said the dust can impact allergies and lead to eye irritation.