Sahara Sand In The Virgin Islands Each Year???

Come on…do you really expect me to believe that the Sahara Desert delivers sand to the Virgin Islands each year? Yes, it is TRUE!

When I first discovered sailing in the Virgin Islands it was August of 1975. I was amazed at the sunsets because they were so colorful and the sky was such an unusual color during the day. What an “old salt” told me was it was Sahara sand blowing in from Africa. I was sure he was pulling my leg, but the fact is he was correct.

Several times each Summer the Sahara dust clouds show up in the Virgin Islands. It might turn the skies a milky color and leave a light coating of brown dust on your car. Usually, these dust clouds are too diluted to cause any health hazards, but if concentrated enough they sometimes raise the air quality index into the unhealthy range.

These clouds start in Africa when tropical waves lift the sand from the Sahara to about 10,000 feet or more. The dust then drifts west on a dry tropical wave, as opposed to a moist tropical wave – the moist ones can spin into hurricanes. These Sahara dust clouds can be HUGE – 3,000 miles from west to east, and 2,000 miles from north to south, or almost as big as the United States! Now that is a BIG cloud! It moves in the jet streams about 350 miles per day.

Because the Sahara dust carries some bad particles, it can cause harm to coral reefs. These bad particles include fungi, spores, and bacteria. Plus, there are times when these clouds carry an entire desert locust cloud from Africa to the Virgin Islands!

Here is the good news of these annual Sahara dust clouds. When they are particularly large and dense they hamper hurricanes from forming. This is one of those years. Even though this year is predicted to have a high count of hurricanes, what is being watched is to see the effect of the Sahara dust clouds on lower the number of hurricanes expected.

Let me know what your experience has been with the Sahara dust clouds in the Caribbean. Until next time…