A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A massive cloud of dust all the way from the Sahara Desert is about to land in Florida. Now, June usually marks the start of what's called dust plume season. And to chat more with us about this, we've called up Jason Dunion. He researches Saharan dust storms for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. So Jason, first, explain exactly what this is because I've heard it referred to as a haboob.
JASON DUNION: Right. Haboobs happen over Africa. This is a grand-scale haboob. It's about the size of the lower 48 states, and it contains a lot of dry air and a lot of dust, as well. And it makes its way completely across the Atlantic. It's traveled about 4,000 miles so far.
MARTÍNEZ: And how often do these storms come to the United States?
DUNION: Now that we're ramping up into the peak season of these dust outbreaks, it's about every three to five days that another one comes off the coast. So we usually get several impacts over the peak of the hurricane season.
MARTÍNEZ: Several impacts. Wow. I thought maybe it would be a little more rare.
DUNION: Right. And it's something - and it's almost like Mother Nature's clockwork. Once we get into mid-June to late July, this is what we start to see. And especially places like the Gulf and the Florida coast - they see these very typically as we get into the peak of the summer.
MARTÍNEZ: How do they make it all the way from the Saharan desert all the way to Florida?
DUNION: It's a great question. I wish I lasted that long. The way they're - they're so stable. They don't mix apart as they come across the entire Atlantic. So the dry air that's about a mile above our heads stays just about as dry from Africa to the Caribbean, all the way to a place like Florida.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow, that's amazing. So by the time they get to the U.S., typically, how do they look? What does it look like by then?
DUNION: Yeah. All that nice dry air is about a mile above your head, so you don't actually get to feel it. But it does stifle the clouds, so you don't see as many thunderstorms, and there's still a lot of dust in the air. So especially the way the dust is shaped at sunrise and sunset, if you're looking toward the sun, the sky can light up. You get some beautiful sunsets, sometimes a really milky-white, calm sky. So it is quite spectacular.
MARTÍNEZ: Americans don't need another excuse to take a selfie, Jason.
DUNION: That's true. This is true.
MARTÍNEZ: 'Cause we're probably going to do that, right?
DUNION: This is absolutely true. But...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
DUNION: ...This could be a nice opportunity for a few days, especially for places like Florida.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. But that also means dust all over your car, all over your house. I mean, it's going to be extra dusty, and you're going to be breathing this stuff in, right?
DUNION: That's right. I've actually been - you have some showers. I've been in the Caribbean when it happens. You actually have some dirt on your car that's all the way from the Sahara. And it can affect health as well. I always recommend folks check with their local experts. But with that dust, folks who have asthma, the elderly, can be a little bit more prone when we have these dust outbreaks come through.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, I know there was a dust storm in southern New Mexico and west Texas in early March. Any difference between those and the ones that's coming to Florida?
DUNION: Yeah. The ones that we see over the West, a lot of times they'll get kicked up by thunderstorms. The ones we see over Africa get kicked up by what we call tropical waves - these little seedlings that can actually become hurricanes. They're much larger, and they're much more westward, approaching across the Atlantic. So it's really the scale that separates these.
MARTÍNEZ: So I guess this is more of a fun thing. I mean, I kind of thought when it was like, a dust storm coming all the way from this - the desert to Florida, I thought, oh, my gosh, this is ominous. But it sounds like it actually could be a cool experience.
DUNION: I think you're right. And, you know, over Africa, the dust can actually hit all the way to the surface. It could be pretty intense. When we see it in - over the United States, it's really spectacular, and it's really something you can look forward to, especially with the sunsets.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's Jason Dunion. He's a research - hurricane research scientist with NOAA. Jason, thanks.
DUNION: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHITNEY'S "RHODODENDRON") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
