United States: A vast, amber-hued blanket of Saharan dust has unfurled across the Caribbean basin, drifting steadily toward the United States. This sweeping plume, rich with desert particulates, is already muffling skies over Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and neighbouring locales, as per visual cues from CBS Miami’s NEXT Weather radar.
Forecast trajectories show the dusty shroud arcing north-westward. By midweek, it’s set to descend upon Florida like a sepia mist, then ripple outward into the broader Gulf territory — touching Georgia, the Carolinas, Louisiana, and Texas by the week’s twilight.
Over the prior weekend, an earlier tendril of this same desert freight brushed Florida’s peninsula, with WKMG Orlando’s tracking confirming the dust’s lingering kiss across the Monday skies.
Massive Sahara dust cloud is cloaking the Caribbean on its way to the U.S. – CBS News https://t.co/uOT0qk98TG
— Tim Conway Jr Show (@ConwayShow) June 3, 2025
What looms ahead is graver — a thicker, more extensive plume poised to grip Florida midweek. Atmospheric visibility may blur, and respiratory discomfort could rise, especially for sensitive groups. As the plume migrates north, it’s predicted to enshroud broader swathes of the southeastern US, carried on upper-level winds, according to CBS News.
This transatlantic phenomenon, known in meteorological circles as the Saharan Air Layer, is a seasonal conveyor of dry, dust-laden air that arcs across the Atlantic from late June through mid-August. According to NOAA’s satellite weather specialist Jason Dunion, this dusty relay occurs every few days and often reaches as far as Texas.
As per CBS News, Adding to the hazy muddle, Canadian wildfire smoke is also adulterating US air quality. On Tuesday, over 100 infernos raged unchecked in Canada, further infusing the atmosphere with acrid smoke, as reported by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
In sum, the week’s air will be a cocktail of scorched earth and scorched sky — where desert sands and forest embers converge in an aerial dance, turning ordinary sunsets into surreal, copper-drenched canvases, and reminding all below of nature’s vast reach.