September 21, 2017//-Hurricanes are wet and windy and sand is dry, but it turns out there is a link between the two.
With more Caribbean islands set to be hit by Hurricane Maria, the tropical islands could really benefit from the sand that lies almost 7,000 miles away.
Because sandstorms that originate in the Sahara Desert can sometimes stop hurricanes from forming.
The BBC’s weather presenter Tomasz Schafernaker explains: “Sandstorms which happen in Africa can sometimes blow out into the Atlantic Ocean and can move out quite far, they can go as far as the Caribbean and the Amazon.
“It [the sand] is carried high in the air and that sand can inhibit hurricanes forming.
“The sand makes hazy skies but it stops the hurricanes. One reasons we think it stops the hurricanes is because there’s a lot of sand in the air and the atmosphere is hazy.
“You have less sunlight going through and sometimes the ocean water doesn’t warm up so much.
“And if the ocean water isn’t warm enough then hurricanes can’t grow because they love hot, tropical water.”
The origins of the hurricanes affecting the Caribbean can actually be found near to the Sahara Desert and as far away as Ethiopia in eastern Africa.
Ripples in the jet stream, known as the Easterly Jet, are carried across the desert to the west coast of Africa and create thick thunderstorms.
When they eventually move out into the Atlantic Ocean they can sometimes form hurricanes and travel to the Caribbean and US.
Tomasz says the reason why the Caribbean is being hit by huge storms at the moment it because the atmosphere is still, calm and clean and moist.
“The ocean is basically like bathwater with light winds and steam just rising off it and the hurricanes love that.
“The very warm water is the perfect environment for a hurricane to thrive and the spin of the earth makes the thunderstorms and they are just growing into big monsters.
“It’s ticking a box – a calm atmosphere, big thunderstorms and hot water. It’s a jigsaw coming together.”
BBC
