By Adriana Navarro, AccuWeather staff writer
From volcanic ash to smoke to dust that suppresses tropical development, these extra particles in the atmosphere can help to create a dazzling display of color at sunsets.
For a few months out of the year, the Gulf Coast of the United States can be treated to more vibrant sunsets thanks to Saharan dust carried by trade winds across the Atlantic Ocean.
Although these sunsets are more notable around the Caribbean Sea, sometimes the dust spreads northwards to the Gulf Coast, near Florida and sometimes Texas, bringing picturesque sunsets with them.
(Twitter/@JACisco)
Smoke from the Swan Lake Fire gave the sunset near Sterling, Alaska a hazy filter on June 27, 2019. Started by a lightning strike on June 5, 2019, the Swan Lake Fire has been burning for about a month and as of July 6, 2019, is at 14% containment according to the Incident Information System.
(Twitter/Daniel R. Patterson)
As the sun sank closer to the horizon, the smoke from the Swan Lake Wildfire caused a hazy sunset near Sterling, Alaska on June 29, 2019.
(Twitter/@JenKogon)
On June 11, 2019, the sun set over Halifax, Nova Scotia, through a filter of wildfire smoke all the way from Alberta, Canada. The winds had carried the smoke all the way to the east coast, creating a fiery orange sunset that evening.
(NASA/NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera/NOAA's DISCOVR satellite)
NASA reported that smoke from the ongoing wildfires in Alaska and Canada was visible from 1 million miles away from Earth. This smoke contributes to the more "hazy" look to sunsets in the area.
"The dust causes the sky to be milky and hazy and not the more deep blue that is most common on sunny days," AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said.
A combination of the Coriolis Effect and an area of high pressurecause the trade winds, which have helped early traders and travelers cross from Europe and Africa to the Americas, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Jun 25 | Wondering about the hazy skies recently? Well there's a big plume of Saharan Dust over much of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and Southeast US! The satellite image from this morning shows the dust plume is well defined across much of the area.
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The dust that these winds carry don't just create stunning sunsets, however. It's because of the influx of Saharan dust during June and July that hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean aren't as active as they are during August and September.
"The dust tends to suppress the development of showers and thunderstorms in the tropics, necessary for tropical development," Kottlowski said. "This suppression is one of the reasons tropical development is strongly hindered during June and July. It is during these months where we see the greatest transport of dust across the southern North Atlantic."
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This dust comes all the way from Africa's Sahara Desert as strong dust storms form during the spring and early summer, according to Kottlowski.
After thunderstorm complexes spread northward to the southern edge of the African desert early in the summer, the door will then open for hurricane season to ramp up.
"Once the soil over the southern desert areas become more moist, there is less dust picked up by the winds and dust becomes less of an issue during August and September into October," he said. "This is one of the reasons why this time period leads to the most active of the Atlantic Hurricane season."
Trade winds are not the only force of nature that delivers these hazy sunsets. Particles from wildfires, volcanic ash even pollution can attribute to how sunsets look in certain areas. As wildfires from Alaska to northwestern Canada continue to burn, people living around the areas, and even areas hundreds of miles away, are witnessing hazy red sunsets.
Another wild sunset in Anchorage Thursday because of wildfire smoke. #sunset #alaskasunsets #alaska #anchorage #landofthemidnightsun
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From around May 31 to about June 6, 2019, winds carried smoke from massive wildfires in Alberta, Canada, to the northeastern U.S., making sunsets more vibrant until the winds changed. It happened again in late in the month around June 22.
The smoke from several wildfires in Canada was so thick that it was visible from 1 million miles away from Earth, according to NASA. The agency noted the Chuckegg Creek wildfire in Alberta, Canada, as one of the larges sources of smoke.
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