Will huge Saharan dust plume and wildfire smoke impact the Myrtle Beach area?
The Grand Strand might see odd skylines as a dust plume travels across the Atlantic all the way from Africa spreads across the southeast today. As with most Saharan dust clouds, most of the dust will disperse south of the Palmetto State.
“It’ll be on the fringes of it. I’m not sure it’s going to be all that noticeable,” said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tom Bacon. “What it might do is maybe make the sunrises and sunsets maybe a little bit redder than what it typically would be.”
This plume is the biggest of the year so far, and it’s earlier than most. The phenomenon happens annually, but typically Saharan dust travels across the tropical Atlantic in mid to late June.
“When these tropical waves come off of the coast of Africa, some of the stronger ones will have a lot of dust with it from the desert, and it travels across the Atlantic will travel across the Caribbean, and sometimes even the gulf and even the southeastern states,” Bacon said “This year, so far, there’s been quite a bit of Saharan dust out in the tropical Atlantic.”
Because dusty air is drier than the usual tropical atmosphere, it can limit tropical systems. But despite the unusual cloud moving across the Atlantic, according to Bacon, it’s not indicative of what to expect this hurricane season.
As the dust cloud approaches, the Grand Strand could also see some smoke coming south from wildfires in Canada. But with dust to the south and smoke to the north, the Myrtle Beach area won’t see major impacts from either.
“It wouldn’t be like it is up across Minnesota, Wisconsin and upper Michigan, where visibilities are greatly reduced, and there’s air quality issues and all that stuff,” said Bacon. “If it would ever get down into the Myrtle Beach area, it would just make the sky a little bit hazy.”
Heading into summer, AccuWeather predicts most of South Carolina will occasionally see poor air quality from wildfire smoke through August.
According to Bacon, folks in the Grand Strand can expect to see effects of the plume heading into the weekend.
After this dust cloud clears, another developing plume could come this way, though it’s too early to predict the specifics.
“Sometimes the Saharan dust gets dispersed before it gets into the Caribbean, so that when it actually does get into the Caribbean, it’s no big deal, it’s all thinned out and everything,” Bacon said. “So we’ll have to wait and see how this holds together as it moves toward the west across the Atlantic.”