Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Saharan dust getting closer to the United States

By now you have probably heard talk about a cloud of dust moving across the Atlantic Ocean that originated from the Saharan Desert in Africa.  The large area of dust is just about to reach the Gulf of Mexico.

(Click image to see larger version)
This is a visible satellite loop over the last 6-hours this morning, ending at 10:50am EDT.  If you look towards the Caribbean you can see the brown colored cloud.  That's the dust!  Look at how far it stretches from nearly the Gulf of Mexico all the way off the screen.  Thousands and thousands of miles.


The dust will help inhibit tropical storm development over the Gulf of Mexico.

NASA computer models project some of the dust could make it to the Midwest as we get towards the end of the week and in to the weekend.  That could make for some very pretty sunrises and sunsets.

For more on the dust layer and tracking it by satellite, check out this page from the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin.

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