Sand Blasted Paradise

Sand Blasted Canary Islands 01/10/2015 MODIS

Sand from the Sahara is sometimes blown all across the Atlantic in wind storms.  Such storms and the rising warm and humid air can lift dust 5,000 meters or so above the Atlantic, blanketing hundreds of thousands of square miles of the eastern Atlantic Ocean with a dense cloud of Saharan sand, many times reaching as far as the Caribbean

This hot, oppressing dust and sand-laden wind is called the Calima by meteorologists and locals on the Canary Islands. It is particularly prevalent in winter. The Calima blows out of a high-pressure system over the Sahara and is drawn northwards ahead of a passing cold-front or depression north of the archipelago. It's fine yellowish-brown dust creeps through doors and windows. Outside visibility is often reduced to null.

This unnormal hot and humid Calima is a difficult part of life. The Canary people suffer from respiratory problems. On January 8, 2002, the international airport of Santa Cruz had to be closed because visibility dropped to less than 50 meters.