Sunrises and Saharan Dust

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Over the past week or so, Florida and parts of the Caribbean islands have been blanketed by Saharan dust that has blown here across the Atlantic Ocean all the way from Africa. Don't worry, the dust isn't so thick that it's affecting our breathing like the smoke from the Canadian wildfires in the northern US, but it has provided us with some colorful sunrises and sunsets. I was fortunate enough to be in St. Augustine, Florida (on the Atlantic coastline) last weekend and found myself up at the crack of dawn to hopefully catch a beautiful sunrise. I wasn't aware of the Saharan dust at the time, but found out about it later. We were treated to a magnificent sunrise! The Castillo de San Marcos, a 350+ year old Spanish masonry fort on the waterfront in St. Augustine, was the perfect location to capture the sunrise, looking out of the Matanzas Bay toward the Atlantic Ocean. The fort wasn't open to visitors yet, so I stood on the grounds of the fort near the seawall to enjoy the majestic beauty of the sunrise. It's interesting to note that the upper level jet stream travels from west to east, yet the Saharan dust rides the mid-altitude winds that travel from east to west. It's often those same winds steer hurricanes from out in the Atlantic Ocean westward towards Florida. I'll take the dust any day over a hurricane!