A cloud of Sahara mud is smothering the Caribbean en path to the U.S.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — An enormous cloud of mud from the Sahara Desert blanketed many of the Caribbean on Monday within the largest occasion of its variety this 12 months because it heads towards america.

The cloud prolonged some 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from Jamaica to effectively previous Barbados within the japanese Caribbean, and a few 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) from the Turks and Caicos Islands within the northern Caribbean down south to Trinidad and Tobago.

“It’s very spectacular,” mentioned Alex DaSilva, lead hurricane knowledgeable with AccuWeather.

The hazy skies unleashed sneezes, coughs and watery eyes throughout the Caribbean, with native forecasters warning that these with allergic reactions, bronchial asthma and different situations ought to stay indoors or put on face masks if open air.

The mud focus was excessive, at .55 aerosol optical depth, the best quantity to this point this 12 months, mentioned Yidiana Zayas, a forecaster with the Nationwide Climate Service in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The aerosol optical depth measures how a lot direct daylight is prevented from reaching the bottom by particles, in line with the U.S. Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The plume is predicted to hit Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi late this week and into the weekend, DaSilva mentioned.

Nonetheless, plumes often lose most of their focus within the japanese Caribbean, he famous.

“These islands are inclined to see extra of an affect, extra of a focus the place it might really block out the solar slightly bit at instances,” he mentioned.

The dry and dusty air often known as the Saharan Air Layer types over the Sahara Desert in Africa and strikes west throughout the Atlantic Ocean beginning round April till about October, in line with NOAA. It additionally prevents tropical waves from forming throughout the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs June 1 to Nov. 30.

June and July often have the best mud focus on common, with plumes touring wherever from 5,000 toes to twenty,000 toes above the bottom, DaSilva mentioned.

In June 2020, a record-breaking cloud of Sahara mud smothered the Caribbean. The dimensions and focus of the plume hadn’t been seen in half a century, prompting forecasters to nickname it the “Godzilla mud cloud.”