JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Saharan dust is making its comeback to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.
The scientific term for the dust is the Saharan Air Layer (SAL), and it’s exactly what it sounds like: dust from Africa's Sahara Desert carried across the Atlantic Ocean by tropical waves.
Satellites and computer models suggest the dust will arrive around the waters of the Caribbean Sea and close to Florida by the end of the week.
The SAL is thousands of feet up in the air and can impede development of tropical systems because it creates subsidence, sinking air, which prevents some of the upward development needed for storms.
Tropical storms also need high levels of moisture throughout the atmosphere, which conversely, the Saharan Air Layer is extremely dry.
This layer of Saharan dust is pretty normal for June and July, and can create some hazy sunrises and sunsets, but is otherwise harmless.