The robust plume of dust, which is knocking on the southern door of the U.S. late Thursday, has been observed on satellite and felt by many in the Caribbean, where it left behind a thin coating on the ground in some areas. The sky turned hazy over the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico and visibility was drastically decreased in some areas.
While strong warm winds over the Sahara Desert carry plumes of sand thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean every year during the summer months, experts say the dust cloud, nicknamed “Godzilla,” is the densest in 50 years.
This year, the dust is the most dense in a half a century, according to several meteorologists. The thick smog has sharply reduced visibility.
The plume of Sahara Desert dust is so huge it was able to be photographed by stunned NASA astronauts from space.
The dust cloud moved into the eastern Caribbean at the weekend and by Tuesday (June 23) had smothered Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and eastern Cuba, continuing its advance up and westward toward Central America and the southern United States.
Officials across the region warned locals to remain at home when possible and wear a face mask, especially if they already had a respiratory condition, as the dust was a powerful irritant and could contain pathogens as well as minerals.
A model from NASA estimates that much of the dust will dissipate in the Gulf of Mexico before reaching land, and what’s left of the cloud will hit Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia later this week. The cloud is expected to bring beautiful sunsets to parts of Florida, Texas, and Louisiana.
The NASA Earth Observatory said the thickest part of the cloud appears to stretch around 1,500 miles across the Atlantic.
According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the mass of dry and dusty air known as the Saharan Air Layer forms over the Sahara Desert and moves across the North Atlantic every three to five days from late spring to early fall, peaking in late June to mid-August.