To learn more about the Saharan Dust cloud that is ‘visiting’ our area, I went to the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) website. NOAA calls this the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) and it is “a mass of very dry, dusty air that forms over the Sahara Desert during the late spring, summer, and early fall.”
This dust cloud, so to speak, whipped up from Africa’s Sahara Desert — a 3.6-million-square-mile hot desert, the largest in the world — moves over the tropical North Atlantic Ocean every three to five days. SAL outbreaks usually occupy a 2 to 2.5-mile-thick layer of the atmosphere with the base starting about 1 mile above the surface.
SAL has unique properties of warmth, dry air, and strong winds that can have significant moderating impacts on tropical cyclone formation and intensification.
More Info
For those of you who may want a bit more information, I am including a link to the NOAA’s team that is studying SAL. Scroll down and you will find these frequently asked questions:
- What is the Saharan Air Layer?
- How does the Saharan Air Layer influence hurricane development?
- How does the Saharan Air Layer affect the weather and skies when it reaches the U.S.?
- How/why does the Saharan Air Layer cause pretty sunsets?
- What are the health impacts of the Saharan Air Layer dust traveling over parts of the U.S.?
- Is it common for dust from the Saharan to cross the Atlantic on a regular basis? How far west can it go into the U.S.?
- Is the recent Saharan dust event that reached the U.S. unusual?
- How do forecasters and scientists monitor and study the Saharan Air Layer?