[Coral-List] African dust in the Caribbean/Florida Keys

Gene Shinn eshinn at marine.usf.edu
Sat Jul 18 14:04:42 EDT 2009


African dust came through the Lower Florida Key,s for several days in 
early July. On July 10, the sun did not break through all day at Key 
West. On July 17 it returned with a vengeance and continues through 
the 18th. We could smell it and the public health dept  in Key west 
had complaints re breathing. We also watched its progress  on a 
website that features 5-day loops showing trip across the Atlantic. 
If interested you can watch the Saharan Air Layer at 
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real-time/wavetrak/movies/m8split/m8splitjava5.html 
People in the Virgin Islands got a heavy dose. The dust and/or the 
wind shear associated with the developing El Nino is likely to keep 
the Atlantic cool and explain our record breaking lack of tropical 
cyclones. Good news for coral reefs and us boaters. Gene



More information about the Coral-List mailing list