From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
Saharan Dust over The Bahamas...
By Wayne Neely, Bahamas Meteorology Department
Jul 7, 2015 - 9:30:29 AM
Image: National Hurricane Center
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Wayne Neely, Bahamas Meteorology Department: I have been getting a lot of calls and emails about the appearance of the
‘milky white skies’ and the red hue appearance of the rising and
setting sun over The Bahamas for the last few days. Yes it is Saharan
dust over us. It makes the sky appear milky white and the boundary of
the clouds appears to be blending in with the milky white sky. During
this Sahara dust ‘event’ it tends to significantly
inhibit
convective activity (thunderstorms and showers)-It doesn’t prevent them
all together but it significantly lessens their activity. It also gives
the sun a very noticeable 'red hue' especially at sunrise and sunset.
This is the same dust in the atmosphere that prevented significant
tropical cyclone development for the last two years over the North
Atlantic. All the haze shrouding The Bahamas this week may not be great
for your health, but it has a major benefit: It helps stymie hurricanes
and tropical storms. The haze actually is Saharan dust that drifted more
than 4,000 miles from Africa, and abnormally heavy concentrations
currently are blanketing the main region of the Atlantic where storms
develop. The dust, which peaks this month, denies the systems of their
lifeblood - heat and moisture.
In The Bahamas, the dust is
expected to remain thick, possibly for the rest of the week. It has
lowered air quality from the good to moderate range. If you have extreme
respiratory problems, stay inside air-conditioned facilities to
minimize exposure. Anyone who works outside for any length of time also
should be careful because of the combination of dust and high heat. Dust
outbreaks occur when strong winds lift clouds of particles from the
Sahara desert. Winds or tropical waves – areas of low pressure – then
push the dust west across the Atlantic. Because the Sahara has been
superheated this year, making its surrounding atmosphere unstable, the
dust outbreaks have been more frequent and expansive than usual.
Wayne
Neely is an international speaker, best-selling author, lecturer on
hurricanes, educator, and meteorologist.
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