The Sahara Desert helps keep hurricanes in check—for now
About research by LAIYIN ZHU et al, Science.
In the Atlantic, ...Warm air from an ordinary thunderstorm has absorbed heat from tepid seawater and begun churning—the birth of a hurricane. But, whether the storm will be a sprinkle or deluge when it makes landfall depends largely on how dusty it is, according to a new study. Wind strips dust from the Sahara Desert, bringing it westward across the Atlantic. These plumes of dirt-laden air provide marine life with nutrients and can affect air quality half a world away. And they’re known to be a wet blanket for growing hurricanes—or, more accurately, a dry one . The lack of moisture, shearing winds, and even the dust itself—by reflecting warming solar rays—can squelch a would-be storm. But it turns out that’s only true if there’s enough dust. When there’s too little, the particles act as nucleation seeds for clouds, boosting the storm’s deluge and the damage it causes when it comes ashore, researchers reported this week in Science Advances. “Surprisingly, the leading factor controlling hurricane precipitation is not, as traditionally thought, sea surface temperature or humidity in the atmosphere. Instead, it’s Sahara dust,” said study co-author Yuan Wang in a statement....