SUNCOAST (SNN TV) – A dust plume could affect your sunsets and air quality.
It’s called Saharan dust — dust that’s carried over the Atlantic Ocean from Africa’s Sahara Desert. It’s very dry and typically forms late spring, summer, and early fall. The first plume to impact Florida this summer comes this weekend.
Forecast models show the dust could impact us throughout the next week.
It doesn’t just make the sun look hazier: the CDC says Saharan dust worsens air quality and increases particulate matter in the air, which can affect those of you with COPD, asthma, and respiratory infections.
The good news? Saharan dust hurts tropical development in the Atlantic. And while the dust does limit thunderstorm development, our drought has worsened on the Suncoast, so rain would be good for the area.