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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A massive cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert blanketed most of the Caribbean on Monday in the biggest event of its kind this year as it heads toward the United States.

The cloud extended some 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from Jamaica to well past Barbados in the eastern Caribbean, and some 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) from the Turks and Caicos Islands in the northern Caribbean down south to Trinidad and Tobago.

The hazy skies unleashed sneezes, coughs and watery eyes across the Caribbean, with local forecasters warning that those with allergies, asthma and other conditions should remain indoors or wear face masks if outdoors.

The dust concentration was high, at .55 aerosol optical depth, the highest amount so far this year, said Yidiana Zayas, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The aerosol optical depth measures how much direct sunlight is prevented from reaching the ground by particles, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The plume is expected to hit Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi late this week and into the weekend, DaSilva said.

However, plumes usually lose most of their concentration in the eastern Caribbean, he noted.

“Those islands tend to see more of an impact, more of a concentration where it can actually block out the sun a little bit at times,” he said.

The dry and dusty air known as the Saharan Air Layer forms over the Sahara Desert in Africa and moves west across the Atlantic Ocean starting around April until about October, according to NOAA. It also prevents tropical waves from forming during the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs June 1 to Nov. 30.

June and July usually have the highest dust concentration on average, with plumes traveling anywhere from 5,000 feet to 20,000 feet above the ground, DaSilva said.

In June 2020, a record-breaking cloud of Sahara dust smothered the Caribbean. The size and concentration of the plume hadn’t been seen in half a century, prompting forecasters to nickname it the “Godzilla dust cloud.”

Then I'm rooting for Saharan Dust to go undefeated.  

DEADHORSE, Alaska (AP) — President Donald Trump wants to double the amount of oil coursing through Alaska’s vast pipeline system and build a massive natural gas project as its “big, beautiful twin,” a top administration official said Monday while touring a prolific oil field near the Arctic Ocean.

The remarks by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright came as he and two other Trump Cabinet members — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin — visited Prudhoe Bay as part of a multiday trip aimed at highlighting Trump’s push to expand oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in the state that drew criticism from environmentalists.


During the trip, Burgum’s agency announced plans to repeal Biden-era restrictions on future leasing and industrial development in portions of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that are designated as special for their wildlife, subsistence or other values.

The petroleum reserve is west of Prudhoe Bay and Deadhorse, the industrial encampment near the starting point of the trans-Alaska pipeline system. The pipeline, which runs for 800 miles (nearly 1,300 kilometers), has been Alaska’s economic lifeline for nearly 50 years.

Government and industry representatives from several Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines, were joining a portion of the U.S. officials’ trip, as Trump has focused renewed attention on the gas project proposal, which in its current iteration would provide gas to Alaska residents and ship liquefied natural gas overseas. Matsuo Takehiko, vice minister for International Affairs at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, was among those at Prudhoe Bay on Monday.


For years, state leaders have dreamed of such a project but cost concerns, shifts in direction, competition and questions about economic feasibility have hindered progress. U.S. tariff talks with Asian countries have been seen as possible leverage for the Trump administration to secure investments in the proposed gas project.


Oil and natural gas are in significant demand worldwide, Wright told a group of officials and pipeline employees in safety hats and vests who gathered near the oil pipeline on a blustery day with 13-degree Fahrenheit (-10 Celsius) windchills. The pipeline stretched out over the snow-covered landscape.

“You have the big two right here,” he said. “Let’s double oil production, build the big, beautiful twin, and we will help energize the world and we will strengthen our country and strengthen our families.”

Oil flow through the trans-Alaska pipeline peaked at about 2 million barrels in the late 1980s. In 2011 — a year in which an average of about 583,000 barrels of oil a day flowed through the pipeline, then-Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican, set a goal of boosting that number to 1 million barrels a day within a decade. It’s never come close in the years since: last year, throughput averaged about 465,000 barrels a day.

Those joining the Trump officials Monday included U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and Gov. Mike Dunleavy, both Republicans, who also took part in meetings Sunday in Anchorage and Utqiagvik.