Huge Sahara dust cloud smothers the Caribbean en route to the U.S.

The Associated Press

· Posted: Jun 02, 2025 12:33 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

A monolithic unreality of particulate from the Sahara Desert blanketed astir of the Caribbean connected Monday successful the biggest lawsuit of its benignant this twelvemonth arsenic it heads toward the United States.

The unreality extended immoderate 3,200 kilometres from Jamaica to good past Barbados in the eastbound Caribbean, and immoderate 1,200 kilometres from the Turks and Caicos Islands successful the bluish Caribbean down southbound to Trinidad and Tobago.

"It's precise impressive," said Alex DaSilva, pb hurricane adept with AccuWeather.

The hazy skies unleashed sneezes, coughs and watery eyes crossed the Caribbean, with section forecasters informing that those with allergies, asthma and different conditions should stay indoors oregon deterioration look masks if outdoors.

The particulate attraction was high, astatine 0.55 aerosol optical depth — the highest magnitude truthful acold this year, said Yidiana Zayas, a forecaster with the U.S. National Weather Service successful San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The aerosol optical extent measures however overmuch nonstop sunlight is prevented from reaching the crushed by particles, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

WATCH | When Sahara sand, particulate blew into U.K. successful 2014:

This plume is expected to deed Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi precocious this week and into the weekend, DaSilva said. However, plumes usually suffer astir of their attraction successful the eastbound Caribbean, helium noted.

"Those islands thin to spot much of an impact, much of a attraction wherever it tin really artifact retired the prima a small spot astatine times," helium said.

The adust and dusty aerial known arsenic the Saharan Air Layer forms implicit the Sahara Desert successful Africa and moves westbound crossed the Atlantic Ocean starting astir April until astir October, according to NOAA. It besides prevents tropical waves from forming during the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs June 1 to Nov. 30.

June and July usually person the highest particulate attraction connected average, with plumes traveling anyplace from 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) to 6,100 metres (20,000 feet) supra the ground, DaSilva said.

In June 2020, a record-breaking unreality of Sahara particulate smothered the Caribbean. The size and attraction of the plume hadn't been seen successful fractional a century, prompting forecasters to nickname it the "Godzilla particulate cloud."