Huge dust cloud from the Sahara heading to United States
- Published
A huge cloud of dust has blown over from the Sahara in Africa, blanketing cities in the Caribbean in darkness.
This is the city of San Juan on the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico. Although events like this happen each year, experts have said that the level of dust in the air this year hasn't been seen in half a century.
Many health experts are worried about how the dust will affect people with breathing issues, such as asthma. The level of dust in the air has reached "hazardous" levels and many people are being urged to stay inside, or wear air filter masks.
Visibility is so bad in some areas people can only see as far as five miles. The dust and sand is from something called the Saharan Air Layer, which forms above the Sahara desert in Africa. Sometimes the dust can be picked up and blown to other countries like the US and UK.
The dust cloud is now being blown towards the south-east of America. Some environmental scientists, like Pablo Méndez Lázaro, have been working with space agency Nasa to help develop an alert system which would warn people of the arrival of the dust in the future.
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