A massive cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert is expected to reach the Southeastern U.S. by Wednesday.
While the weather pattern driving the cloud is not unusual, the amount of dust is, according to KSLNewsRadio. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Colonel Doug Hurley snapped a photo from on board the International Space Station, as NDTV reported.
“We flew over this Saharan dust plume today in the west central Atlantic,” he tweeted Sunday. “Amazing how large an area it covers!”
The dust is part of something called the Saharan Air Layer (SAL), a mass of dry, dusty air that travels over the North Atlantic every three to five days between mid-June and mid-August, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric information reported by KSL.
“Every so often, when the dust plume is large enough and trade winds set up just right, the dust can travel thousands of miles across the Atlantic and into the U.S.,” CNN Meteorologist Haley Brink said.
The current plume emerged off of North Africa last weekend and has already traveled more than 3,000 miles to reach the eastern Caribbean Sea, The Weather Channel reported.
It covers an area larger than the lower 48 states and Western Europe.
The dust is expected to travel more than 5,000 miles to reach the U.S., according to CNN. But its effects for the country will mostly be positive: brilliant sunsets and suppressed hurricane activity.
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