Increased levels of particulates wafted from the Sahara desert are causing health and environmental concerns.
Each summer, microscopic dust particles kicked up by African sandstorms blow thousands of miles (kilometers) across the Atlantic to arrive in the Caribbean, limiting airplane pilots' visibility to just a few miles and contributing to the suffering of asthmatics trying to draw breath.
The phenomenon has been around as long as there's been sand in the Sahara Desert. But it's attracting ever more attention from regional scientists who say the clouds have grown, even if there's no global consensus on the issue.
In recent days and weeks a particularly large cloud dusted eastern Caribbean islands, made for hazy skies and intense, tangerine-tinted sunsets off Havana, drifted over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and was detected as far away as Wyoming. In satellite images provided by NASA, the enormous, smoky clouds can be seen wafting westward from Africa covering hundreds of square miles. From the ground, they can bring a faint haze.
Experts say particulate matter found in the clouds may also be cause for health concerns, and are calling for more study to understand their potential impact.
"It is a matter of great magnitude, interest and importance for health," said Braulio Jimenez-Velez, a specialist in molecular and environmental toxicology at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, who is researching the issue.
African dust has prompted two health alerts this year in Puerto Rico for asthma sufferers and people with allergies, and the Dominican Republic also issued a lower-level warning.
Airborne particulate matter is connected to respiratory disease worldwide, usually among people with existing problems such as asthma. Parts of the Caribbean, such as Puerto Rico, have high asthma rates. However, no direct link between African dust and higher rates of asthma or lung cancer has been established.
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