CBS Miami's NEXT Weather radar shows the Saharan dust forecast for this Friday, June 6, 2025. / Credit: CBS News Dust from Africa typically move across the Atlantic every year.

Thunderstorms in the Sahara region stir up dust and push it into the atmosphere. The dust is then transported across the Atlantic and deposited in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.

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 dust mass, which forms in the Sahara Desert in northern Africa and blows thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean, is forecast to arrive in Florida this week.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A vast cloud of Sahara dust is blanketing the Caribbean as it heads to the U.S. with a size and concentration that experts say hasn’t been seen in half a century. Air ...

Expansive dust clouds arise from the sun-baked Sahara each year, making the 5,000-mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the southern United States. While these dust plumes tend to stay intact ...