A Massive Saharan Dust Plume Is Moving Into the Southeast US (arstechnica.com) 79
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A hot desert wind is carrying a massive cloud of Saharan dust into the Southern United States this week. Dust plumes from the Sahara routinely blow westward across the Atlantic at this time of year, but this event is a doozy -- by some measures, the biggest in decades. And a second plume appears to be forming about a week behind the big one. Across the southeastern US, from the Gulf Coast to the Carolinas and potentially as far north as Indianapolis and Cincinnati, dust effects will likely be visible in the coming days. Trillions of dust grains will reflect sunlight in every direction, creating milky white skies. The dusty haze reflects some sunshine back to space, cooling the surface a bit where the plume is thickest.
Longer waves of red and orange light tend to penetrate the dusty haze, so sunrises and sunsets are likely to be especially beautiful. On the downside, where the plume mingles with showers or thunderstorms, downdrafts may carry desert dust to Earth's surface. This will impair air quality and could trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks. The more dust reaches an area, the more pronounced the effects will be. Scott Denning, climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, goes on to describe what causes these plumes to form.
Longer waves of red and orange light tend to penetrate the dusty haze, so sunrises and sunsets are likely to be especially beautiful. On the downside, where the plume mingles with showers or thunderstorms, downdrafts may carry desert dust to Earth's surface. This will impair air quality and could trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks. The more dust reaches an area, the more pronounced the effects will be. Scott Denning, climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, goes on to describe what causes these plumes to form.
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They rarely reach the US, though. Not that the storms care about election years, though, I'm fairly sure they just know that the US is the greatest country of the world and they just want to come, too.
Damn illegal immigrants.
Africa is attacking! (Score:2)
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You had everything and now you also want the rest...
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I thought it was mainly a problem with U.S. politicians.
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I bless the rains down in Africa, I passed some rains down in
Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
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Has anything good come from that place? Precious metals perhaps, coffee?
And blood diamonds.
I think America may have gotten some cheap labour from there too, way back in the past...
Back before H1B that is.
(too soon?)
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Big deal. Prior to the 14th century slaves were the second most valuable export from Europe to Africa and Asia, after furs and before amber. There wasn't anything else worth exporting, and the slaves were apparently grateful enough to be living in civilization that they rarely tried to escape.
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The Second Amendment was mostly about merchant ships carrying their own cannon, port cities with artillery batteries, and frontier towns that had rockets, grenades, flame throwers, trebuchets, and mortars, and their militias, which were generally every person in the community able to carry weapons (frequently including women and older children) led and organized by someone with some military experience (the "well ordered" part of the Amendment).
Several Muslim early writers noted that European slaves tended
Re: Africa is attacking! (Score:2)
Humanity?
Wait, on second thought...
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View from Space: (Score:5, Informative)
Also, the lawyers are getting itchy and are asking who they can sue, preferably a class action dust complaint.
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Typical American. Getting something for free and still complaining.
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I can confirm that this has been incoming for over a week now. I happened to be down in Mobile, AL over a week ago and the clouds already had an orange tint to them on the East side. It looked so odd, seeing orange-ish clouds at 1pm. I might go back down there in a week - should be interesting.
Comparison (Score:3)
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Revelation
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COVID-19 is a global pandemic responsible for closing on a million deaths and a huge number of permanently injured people. Additionally, it's caused massive damage to the world economy. It's still spreading, especially through the US, UK, Sweden and Brazil.
Murder hornets are a non-story that for some reason some news channels decided to devote a small amount of airtime to instead of national politics, a recession, or global pandemic.
The Sahar
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Murder hornets are a non-story that for some reason
For some reason? For anyone who has ever been swarmed by yellow jackets these things are nightmare come true!
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I mean, they are like 4 nests in one corner of north america, and they aren't close to actual people.
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There have been four nests confirmed so far, all near the Washington/British Colombia border, but there are more. Bee nests were raided in the Skagit Valley last fall, about half-way to Seattle, and a reliable sighting was made near Olympia, an hour south of Seattle. Beekeepers have enough to worry about already, on top of virroa mites and colony collapse disorder, these things will slaughter an entire hive in a day in order to take the grubs to their young. British Colombia is about as far north as thei
Shai-hulud passes (Score:2)
Could make an impressive promotional spectacle for Denis Villeneuve's upcoming film.
Enjoying climate change (Score:1)
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The dry air robs the opportunity for hurricanes to form. Damn! Really fucks up the narrative that AGW will doom civilization. That, and this is cyclical. A plume this size occurs once every 50 years.
One of the main reasons is that the wind shear stops the hurricanes from being able to form. That would be true even if there was no dust in it and it was't extra dry.
Re: Enjoying climate change (Score:1)
So now climate change helps fight hurricanes? Sign us up!
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I always wanted to know (Score:5, Funny)
I always wanted to know what it was like to live during the time of the Civil War, the Spanish Flu, Great Depression, Civil Rights Movement, Watergate, and the Dust Bowl. Just not all at once though.
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Now you know why "may you live in interesting times" is a curse.
This happens every year. (Score:2, Informative)
As exciting as it sounds, it's normal.
Re:This happens every year. (Score:5, Insightful)
2013 article: https://earthobservatory.nasa.... [nasa.gov] 2018 article: https://earthobservatory.nasa.... [nasa.gov]
As exciting as it sounds, it's normal.
What every year is the biggest in decades?
Your 2013 article https://earthobservatory.nasa.... [nasa.gov] is good because it shows the exact same satellite viewpoint as the one from 2 weeks ago https://www.nasa.gov/feature/g... [nasa.gov]
Every man has a penis, but if you suddenly see someone who's penis is large enough that the tip is visibly hanging out of the bottom of their shorts, you wouldn't describe it as "normal".
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Every man has a penis, but if you suddenly see someone who's penis is large enough that the tip is visibly hanging out of the bottom of their shorts, you wouldn't describe it as "normal".
That depends on how long the shorts are.
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What every year is the biggest in decades?
The year, apparently a few decades ago, when it was the "biggest in decades".
Re:This happens every year. (Score:5, Informative)
Branding (Score:2)
Stoner's Report from Texas (Score:5, Interesting)
The dust was already here this morning. As a former smoker of various substances I know what different varieties and levels of particulates feel like in my throat. Today I could definitely feel a small layer of something coating the inside of my throat, I felt compelled to mild coughing periodically throughout the day to clear it out. Qualitatively I'd say it's maybe about one-quarter as much coughing as smoking half a pack of commercial cigs a day. If I had to guess, this dust is made up of finer particulates, probably finer than cigarettes, and definitely finer than weed.
I had a pest control service here to do a heat treatment on a bedroom to kill bed bugs. Since they were heating the room up to 150 degrees for a few hours, the air conditioner got turned off. Even with no A/C and the heater going, it was surprisingly not totally disgusting inside. Seemed to be about 8 or 10 degrees cooler outside than normal for this time of year with southerly wind... didn't even break 90.
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Today I could definitely feel a small layer of something coating the inside of my throat, I felt compelled to mild coughing periodically throughout the day to clear it out.
If only there was something a person could strap to the front of their head that covers the nose and mouth, that might filter out unwanted materials... oh, but what's the use."
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Are N95s available for normal prices yet? I really don't know, I've just been staying away from people to the fullest degree possible, and using the cheap masks that don't filter particulates when I can't. That's one of the reasons I quit smoking this year. It's easier to maintain a distance from people, and easier to budget for the essentials. I'm hooking back up in sweet carnal union with Miss Mary as soon as things change, but I should be broken up with the Marlboro Man for good. Finally, I can become a
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I don't know if it's just easier for me to smell it, or if I'm putting in more miles biking around the neighborhood, but that seems to actually be happening. It's the high grade, too - more flavors than Heinz, Baskin Robbins, or Jelly Belly.
Here's hoping for a November landslide, so people won't have to keep driving to Colorado. That weird "CBD" shit from the gas station that looks exactly like industrial hemp with all the life sucked out of it - it's just not the same.
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This is pretty interesting, free land (Score:2)
But I am curious if any locust infestations come with the dust plume?
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Originally there were also frogs, but those mostly fell out over the Canary Islands.
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Those aren't your ordinary locusts, they are politician locusts. They seem to infest the U.S. regularly.
Weather report (Score:2)
The skies are powdery blue or white. It's still hot and humid as fuck.
Monty Python News ... (Score:2)
A Massive Saharan Dust Plume Is Moving Into the Southeast US ...Longer waves of red and orange light tend to penetrate the dusty haze, so sunrises and sunsets are likely to be especially beautiful.
Forecaster: Remarkable dust storm, the Saharan Orange, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
Mr. Praline: The plumage don't enter into it.
It's the year 2020 (Score:1)
So, the wall between US and Mexico was not enough (Score:1)
Leave the weather out of it (Score:1)
An African dust plume is immigrating into the US, probably without visa too, ... how ominous.
Seriously, though. Does Slashdot really need to report on the weather now?
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Seriously, though. Does Slashdot really need to report on the weather now?
This story is for all the people who say "how does what happens in other countries affect me".
Hint: That apparently includes you.
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Hint: That apparently includes you.
No, it doesn't. Dust from the Sahara blowing to other continents is ancient news.
The Real Winner In All Of This (Score:2)
SyFy will save a fortune on visual effects.
Quick... (Score:1)
Make the dust appear to have come from China... Then the Trumpeteer can blame them. He seems to blame them for everything these days (sic) including his golf handicap (wot! he does not have one...????)