Trans Ocean Winds bring Sahara to Texas

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A plume of Saharan dust from Africa made it all the way to the Texas Gulf Coast early this week, making for hazy skies as well as vivid sunrises and sunsets. Yet another plume of dust located over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday morning was expected to spread towards the Texas Gulf Coast by Thursday. This may create more hazy conditions late this week, the National Weather Service in Houston said.

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Plumes of dust from the Sahara Desert frequently make a 5,000-mile-long voyage to parts of the United States and the air that lofts these particles can have a big impact on the Atlantic hurricane season. Known as the Saharan air layer (SAL), this dry, dusty air mass pushes westward off Africa into the tropical Atlantic Ocean about every three to five days from late spring through early fall. "The air is extremely dry, with about one-half the moisture of the typical tropical atmosphere," said Jason Dunion, a tropical scientist with NOAA's Hurricane Research Division in an email. The SAL is typically located between 5,000 and 20,000 feet above the earth's surface and is transported westward by bursts of strong winds that are located in the central and western Atlantic at altitudes between 6,500 and 14,500 feet. It's easy to see on this NASA animation how the large dust plumes spread westward in early-mid July 2016 across the Atlantic, Caribbean and into the western Gulf of Mexico. Dust in the SAL is indicated by the orange and brown contours.

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