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Dust carried across the Atlantic is one of the great wonders of the weather world. This is the most significant cloud so far this year.
By Amy Graff
Amy Graff is a reporter on The Times’s weather team.
June 2, 2025, 5:40 a.m. ET
A giant cloud of Saharan dust the size of the continental United States floating over the Atlantic Ocean was expected to spread across the Gulf Coast region this week. By the time the thick plume reaches Florida, it will have traveled over 5,000 miles from North Africa.
The National Weather Service office in Puerto Rico warned of poor air quality and advised people with respiratory issues such as asthma to wear masks.
The plume will have lost some density by the time it reaches South Florida and other Gulf Coast states by the middle of the week, but residents may still notice that the world outside appears different as dust high in the atmosphere scatters sunlight.
“Typically we have nice blue skies, but with the dust, the whole sky looks soft and warm because the particles themselves are red,” said Joseph Prospero, professor emeritus at the University of Miami Center for Aerosol Science and Technology.
“Everything looks muted,” he said.
Dust plume season is just beginning.
The transport of dust from the Sahara in North Africa to far-flung places across the globe is one of the great wonders of the weather world. And we’re right at the start of the season when dust most commonly moves across the Atlantic.
The dust headed toward the United States left Africa last week and drifted into the Caribbean over the weekend.
