Dust cloud 2023: Sahara sand could choke your summer skies this weekend and next week

How wild is this weather?

According to meteorologists, ominous clouds of dust, originating from the Sahara in Africa, are currently drifting across the Atlantic Ocean, headed for the United States in the coming days.

So dense and sprawling are the dust clouds that they could be seen from space via weather satellites, which showed them traversing over the Caribbean Sea. Meanwhile, an even greater plume of dust was just starting its journey off the coast of Africa.

The first of the clouds is predicted to reach Florida by Saturday, and then Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama by Sunday, AccuWeather.com reported. Once there, they could darken the skies to near-opacity and diminish air quality to hazardous levels. But even then, scientists say it’s just a “preview of what’s to come next week,” when the more monstrous cloud that’s just gathering steam out of Africa will reach U.S. shores, blown by trade winds over the tropical Atlantic.

Saharan dust clouds are not a rare phenomenon in the U.S. In fact, in 2020, a massive haze of them gritted the skies over the lower half of the country—an event so extreme, it was dubbed the “Godzilla” of dust clouds. And for decades, NASA has captured images of at-times continent-size puffs of hot air and sand floating in the atmosphere, drifting from coast to coast.

While such clouds may dim the sunlight in cities like Miami and Austin next week, they could also bring a brief respite from the boiling temperatures lately, as planet Earth marked its unofficial hottest days in recorded history this past week. Saharan dust clouds contain 50% less moisture than the typical tropical atmosphere, and its suspended particles of phosphorus, iron, and other organic matter deflect UV rays. They can also put a damper on hurricanes that could otherwise be swirling near Atlantic coasts.

They will also, however, worsen the country’s recent air-quality woes. In past months, wildfire smoke from Canada has suffocated parts of the upper United States, tinging skies above New York bright orange.