Name: 'Godzilla dust cloud' drifts over U.S. Southeast, raising health concerns
Brand: reuters.com
SKU: reuters-com-2184
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

'Godzilla dust cloud' drifts over U.S. Southeast, raising health concerns

preview

By (Reuters) - A massive plume of dust whipped up from the Sahara desert will hover over the U.S. Southeast this weekend, forecasters say, shrouding the region in a brown haze and raising more health concerns in states where the coronavirus crisis is worsening.The 3,500-mile-long (5,600 km) cloud, dubbed the “Godzilla dust cloud,” traveled 5,000 miles (8,047 km) from North Africa before reaching the region stretching from Florida west into Texas and north into North Carolina through Arkansas, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.“It’s a really dry layer of air that contains these very fine dust particulates. It occurs every summer,” said NWS meteorologist Patrick Blood. “Some of these plumes contain more particles, and right now we expecting a very large plume of dust in the Gulf Coast.”This year, the dust is the most dense it has been in a half a century, several meteorologists told Reuters earlier this week as it crossed over the Caribbean.The Saharan dust plume will hang over the region until the middle of next week, deteriorating the air quality in Texas, Florida and other states where the number of COVID-19 cases has recently spiked.“There’s emerging evidence of potential interactions between air pollution and the risk of COVID, so at this stage we are concerned,” said Gregory Wellenius, an professor of environmental health at Boston University’s School of Public Health.Air pollution can be especially detrimental for people who are at risk for or suffer from cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, Wellenius added. Heart and lung problems heighten the risk of severe COVID-19.The plume will create hazy skies and lower visibility. In the past, dust plumes from Africa have dumped a thin layer of dust onto vehicles in Houston, where air quality is always a concern, Blood said.The dry air mass that carries the dust can suppress tropical storm and hurricane formation and can enhance and illuminate sunrises and sunsets, meteorologists said.Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards:

By (Reuters) - A massive plume of dust whipped up from the Sahara desert will hover over the U.S. Southeast this weekend, forecasters say, shrouding the region in a brown haze and raising more health concerns in states where the coronavirus crisis is worsening.The 3,500-mile-long (5,600 km) cloud, dubbed the “Godzilla dust cloud,” traveled 5,000 miles (8,047 km) from North Africa before reaching the region stretching from Florida west into Texas and north into North Carolina through Arkansas, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.“It’s a really dry layer of air that contains these very...

public

Brendan O\u0027Brien

Brendan O’Brien

Top and breaking news, pictures and videos from Reuters. For more breaking business news, follow @ReutersBiz.

reuters.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

'Godzilla dust cloud' drifts over U.S. Southeast, raising health concerns

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS