Saharan Dust from Africa is on its way to the US

Desert dust will extend toward the United States, which will halt the hurricane season

Her thanks to a large area of ​​desert dust seen in satellite imagery blowing off the west coast of Africa.

Prediction models show dust moving across tropical regions – the main areas of tropical development – and into the Gulf of Mexico by this time next week.

This means it will travel more than 5,000 miles, according to CNN Halley Brink, a meteorologist.

“Large columns of desert dust routinely flow into the Atlantic Ocean from late spring to early fall,” she says. “Often times, when the dust column is large enough and the trade winds are well suited, dust can travel thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean and into the United States.”

Although dust is a visual indication there will be little or no tropical evolution, but it is not the main reason why the tropical system does not form when it is present.

“Dust is the visible part of the potential area for low tropical development,” explains a CNN weather forecaster, Chad Myers. “Dry air and additional vertical shear along with dust are the driving factors to limit the development of tropical storms.”

Vertical wind shear is the change of wind speed and direction with altitude. For a hurricane to form, it only needs to mow the wind or a very humid atmosphere.

So, next week, don’t expect the Atlantic to see a fourth storm named. Instead, by this time next week, people who live and visit the shores of the Caribbean and Gulf coast will be in some wonderful sunrise and sunset.

When dust moves like this across the ocean, “high dust particles in the atmosphere can scatter the sunlight and create some of the most vibrant sunsets,” says Brink.

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