CNN/AP: Massive dust cloud heads to U.S.

[DeepModem Mom]

Massive dust cloud heads to U.S.


MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- An enormous, hazy cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert is blowing toward the southern United States, but meteorologists do not expect much effect beyond colorful sunsets.

The leading edge of the cloud -- nearly the size of the continental United States -- should move across Florida sometime from Monday through Wednesday.

"This is not going to be a tremendous event, but it will be kind of interesting," said Jim Lushine, a severe weather expert with the National Weather Service in Miami.

He said the dust could make sunrises and sunsets spectacular....

***

Such dust clouds are not uncommon, especially at this time of year. They start when weather patterns called tropical waves pick up dust from the desert in North Africa, carry it a couple of miles into the atmosphere and drift westward....


http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/07/23/dust.storm.ap/index.html

[teach1st]

1. Oh, that's good news...

...I thought it was because I hadn't cleaned the house in a while.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. LOL!

[montana_hazeleyes]

30. LOL!

:rofl:

[JABBS]

36. bush

Will Bush try to blow it up -- in the name of homeland security?

[AuntiBush]

69. I was laughing so Hard I thought you wrote "holy security!"

LOLOLOL! Still laughing...

[AuntiBush]

68. LOLOLOL!!!!!!

[ixion]

3. Interesting. I'm not sure I see this cloud on the satellite images...

you would think something that large would be visible. :shrug:

[goforit]

19. good point.

could this be another military test?

[Up2Late]

57. I think this is the Picture of the Dust Cloud in question!

They never say if it's coming from the East or the West, but I think it's this one, this Photo is from Tuesday.



Click top image at the NASA site.

[Skip Intro]

67. OMG. I see the Virgin Mary.

sorry

couldn't resist

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Any depleted uranium in them there clouds???

http://shininglight.us/mt/archives/2005/03/details_on_depl.html


Details on Depleted Uranium
The details about Depleted Uranium are emerging from the deep hole the US Department of Defense has put them. Rumor has it that the BBC will break the story over the next few days. If that happens, US mainstream media will likely pick up the story.

What I want to know is why its taken so long. Who put the blackout on US Media? I've found internet links to documents produced by the government as early as 1990 on DU and its potential consequences. There are extensive resources on-line on DU. There are also government commissioned studies that minimize it's risks. The Federation of American Scientists has a good set of links.

Remember all the discussion about Anthrax powder? The CDC describes how small particles of Anthrax the size of 5-10 micrometers can easily become airborne again when disturbed:


Although resuspension of certain settled particles requires substantial amounts of energy, lower energy activities (e.g., paper handling, foot traffic, mail handling, and patting of chairs) can reaerosolize settled B. anthracis spores (9,10). The clinical and epidemiologic presentations of anthrax after an intentional release vary by the population targeted, the characteristics of the spores, the mode and source of exposure, and other characteristics.

The size of the particles of DU are nanometers and therefore even easier to disturb and stay airborne for longer periods. The problem with even Rands conclusions are based on the assumption of episodic exposures where the body can purge itself of the particles as it do with natural occuring uranium. I can imagine battlefields that are occupied indefinitely producing continuous exposure that builds up in the body. I recall discussions of dust always in the air in Iraq. I can imagine a gradually increasing continuous exposure to DU in certain locations. With troops rotating in and out of hot areas, they receive continuous exposure while there. The numbers exposed would be very high.

[ixion]

5. that was my first thought

and then you've got the meteorologists saying "no big deal"

Just a few tonnes of radioactive sand... nothing to be alarmed about. :eyes:

[Skink]

8. So Bin Laden has finally released the Cloud.

:scared:

[CrispyQ]

11. What we deposited comes back to us.

These thugs have no concept of 'we're all in this together.'

[Carni]

15. If this is so "common"

Why have I never heard of it before?

Last week there was a "haboob" in Arizona now five days later or whatever we have this?

Hey but it can't relate to Global warming or anything because CNN tells us they are not uncommon.

[Ripley]

16. What's a "haboob"?

I never heard of that or giant dust storms coming off of Africa.

Dust storms might be common, but ones the size of the continental USA that have traveled half way around the world?

[DeepModem Mom]

17. Agree -- that is one big-ass dust storm! nt

[goforit]

20. I love that satellite picture of what?

It's really cool looking.

[Ripley]

23. Black Hole.

An Artist's representation of one, of course. I love it too! Until one pops up in our neighborhood.

[Carni]

44. Re: *haboob*

I watched Lou Dobbs the other night and apparently the actual word for the kind of dust storm they had in Arizona last week is *haboob*
(at least that is what they claimed on the show)

Dust storms and Arizona are not news but the one they had last week wielded 55 MPH winds and was larger than what they usually have.

[XemaSab]

50. according to my wind links below

haboobs are African.

[Carni]

51. That well may be

I have no idea...but I was just dying to use the word after hearing it on Lou Dobbs!

[XemaSab]

52. haboob

haboob

haboob

It's a good word. :-)

[Carni]

54. I thought so too lol EOM

[Stinky The Clown]

59. You think Lou's gotta big haboob ......... ?

.......... y'oughtta see my old man's haboob.

[Carni]

60. I don't know

Are we talking manzere material (in that case Lou may have big haboob)

or the *other* (I have heard Lou is a republican so that would be a haboob I could not put stock in lol)

[Nothing Without Hope]

63. I have heard of this kind of phenomenon before. Sometimes there are

super-huge dust storms that kick the finest dust particles so high into the atmosphere that they can go this far. Same phenomenon can kick fine volcanic ash into global circulation.

[FlaGranny]

39. Every time you seen really, really spectacular

sunsets it is most likely caused by dust in the atmosphere, either from huge dust storms, or from volcanoes. It has always been so. I remember a spell maybe 10 or 15 years ago or days and days of gorgeous sunsets caused by a large cloud of dust from the Sahara.

[Carni]

45. I live WAYYYY north of Florida

We don't really get sunsets that are all that spectacular here
(which would explain why I haven't witnessed this whole dust thing)

[Demeter]

56. I Seem To Recall Spectacular Sunsets In Michigan

when all the western states were in flames.

[unhappycamper]

7. Ya beat me to it. I was finding some previous DU links on the subject. n/t

[JohnyCanuck]

9. A recent thread on Depleted Uranium here

http://tinyurl.com/99ke8

Contains the contents of a presentation on Depleted Uranium by this medical doctor:

Dr. Fasy is an Associate Clinical Professor of Pathology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He has longstanding interests in carcinogenesis and environmental toxicology. In the past two years, he has lectured at conferences and university campuses on the toxic effects of inhaling uranium oxide dusts derived from depleted uranium weapons.

[Im_Your_Huckleberry]

75. bingo.

[unhappycamper]

6. I wonder how much uranium oxide is in those clouds?

Depleted Uranium is a pretty big deal:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4124449
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4045817
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=137601

[HysteryDiagnosis]

13. A supervisor of mine who was in special forces some years ago

had a DU munition in his office. He was rather proud of it. I told him what it was.. didn't seem to bother him. Some consider it a bit dodgey......



http://cseserv.engr.scu.edu/StudentWebPages/IPesic/ResearchPaper.htm
DEPLETED URANIUM

ETHICS OF THE SILVER BULLET

By: Iliya Pesic
I. INTRODUCTION/ABSTRACT:

“All the soldiers there were wearing NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical warfare) protective clothing. We said: ‘What’s going on here?’ And their answer was: ‘Didn’t you know? This ammunition is a bit dodgy.’” – Tim Pubrick, Gulf War veteran, British Royal Army tank commander.6


Depleted uranium (DU) ammunition is a very recent advancement in military weapons use. Due to its effectiveness against piercing armor, DU ammunition has recently become a popular item among NATO armies and will most likely become a mainstream form of conventional ammunition among many other armies of the world.

However, massive amounts of circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that the use of DU ammunition has known to cause dramatic side effects, such as health problems, stillborn babies, toxic and poisonous land, water supplies, and residential territories. Hence an important question arises, is it ethical to use DU ammunition on the battlefield?

[Massacure]

14. DU munition isn't a problem until it is used.

The munition is relatively safe to handle when it is one big piece. It is when it is used and burns into little tiny dust particles and inhaled that it is a problem.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

18. Oh.... well I feel much better now.... like we could not take out

Iraq's pitifully armed military with conventional munitions. Nothing exceeds like excess I suppose.

[Massacure]

33. Tungsten is nearly as effective as DU

Of course there aren't thousands of tons of it laying around from another industry, like DU which is left over from uranium enrichment. Hence Tungsten is more expensive.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

35. DU they would have to SAFELY (so say) dispose of.... $$$$$,

much easier to spray it upon other nations... cheaper too. Bastards.

[XemaSab]

47. So what you're saying is

W is nearly as effective as DU?

Wow, that's a bold statement.

[acmavm]

10. Maybe Condi meant to say dust clouds instead of mushroom clouds.

.

[goforit]

21. LOL!!!!........Now don't start going to her defense.

[D-Notice]

12. Will this get blamed

on Iran or Syria?

[goforit]

22. LOL!!!

[are_we_united_yet]

25. Clinton

[DanCa]

24. Lol this sounds like the plot to the fantastic four movie (nt)

[donsu]

26. bottom line - breathing will be more difficult starting tomorrow

for us in S. Fla.

[DeepModem Mom]

27. WARNING for people with respiratory problems, from the article --

If the dust is concentrated enough, it could create some problems for people with respiratory problems, said Ken Larson, a natural resource specialist with the Broward County Environmental Protection Department.

"If somebody is subject to a respiratory condition, if they see hazy skies, they might want to take a little more precaution, not participate in strenuous activity and stay indoors," Larson said.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

76. Better carry our duct tape and plastic around with us.....

[earth mom]

28. Tinfoil hat time...but

2 weeks ago, I had the absolute worst time breathing for a couple of days. I was literally gasping for air. It was hot here-PNW-and since I have what they call "chronic bronchitis" (though I haven't been sick with it in almost a year!) I figured it'd go away and it did. Though, honestly, this was NOTHING like anything I've EVER experienced before and just bizarre since it came and went so quickly. I probably should have gone to the doctor but I'm not crazy about going to the doctor; I'm not big on medicine and all that jazz. Now, looking back, I'm wondering if there were "unusual" pollutants in the air on those days...???!!!

Anyone else experience something similar 2 weeks-from this coming mon & tue-ago?

:tinfoilhat:

p.s. And yes, I'm worried about that dust cloud...!

[anitar1]

32. Thanks, I just thought it was me. I have had problems

breathing , off and on for the last week or so. It is the pits. Never had anything this severe.

[earth mom]

40. You're in Oregon and I'm in Oregon too...

very bizarre...wonder what it was...?

[mccoyn]

74. It could be an allergy.

Either a plant that was pollinating for a couple days or a pollution discharge. You can develop allergies any time in your life so it may even be something you've been exposed to before.

I had a bad allergy reaction once that made it hard to breath. When I left the area it went away. That was before I had much problems with allergies.

[sattahipdeep]

29. The atmosphere globally is contaminated with it. (DU)

We have huge dust storms that are a million square miles and transport millions
of tons of dust and sand every year around the world.

Depleted Uranium: A Scientific Perspective

An Interview With LEUREN MORET, Geoscientist

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6232

[cliss]

31. I have 2 comments;

1) I read in my newspaper that this cloud is headed straight for Florida. Any chance the governor's mansion will be targeted? I heard Columba doesn't clean. She's too busy on tax-free shopping trips to Paris.

2) Now I'm wondering about the Sahara. If a huge bunch of sand it blowing our way, won't this eventually deplete the sand dunes? Or is there enough to spare.

I'm just thinking about the Dust Bowl of the 1930's, when US farmers neglected their fields. They just tilled right over them, and they - blew away. Any thoughts?

[XemaSab]

48. Africa is experiencing

profound desertification, a lot like the dust bowl. There's a lot of sand in the sahara, but the biggest concern for them isn't losing their sand, it's having sand blowing everywhere and totally disrupting agriculture in a vicious cycle of tillage and desertification.

[arwalden]

34. Will This Be A Hazard To Aircraft?

[Rainscents]

37. Link to satellite to dust storm heading FL...

http://www.nbc6.net/slideshow/4759870/detail.html?qs=;s=1;w=320

[DeepModem Mom]

38. Some of those pics show storms in 1995 and the '80s: anybody remember...

these storms, and what they were like?

And thanks, Rainscents, for posting!

[Mika]

43. I remember them

Almost every year at this time we get them here in S Fla.

The air is brown. Cars and everything outside gets coated with fine brown grit.

I don't go out for my usual 25 miles of weekday/200 miles of weekend cycling during these events (unless I wear a filtration mask, which is too hot).

[DeepModem Mom]

46. Thanks, Mika -- describing what happened before helps in understanding...

this article. This was all new to me.

[Maraya1969]

65. I don't know what you are talking about. I know that in the spring

the fires make me sick. Then the summer rains bring all the mold that makes me sick. Then there is the dust that comes in when I open my windows but that is from the concrete factory down the street.

I came down here for the healthy sunshine and vegetation. Maybe I should move back to New Jersey and breath the fresh pollution.

[aquart]

41. Red dust?

I read once that the red sand from the Sahara (which, if the name were ancient Sumerian would mean Red Sand) was a damned annoyance to Mediterrannean housewives because when the wind was wrong, it just blew in.

[XemaSab]

49. that's a sirocco wind

http://windlegends.org/windnames.htm

http://ggweather.com/winds.html

[aquart]

53. I love the links!

I've bookmarked them in my language folder.

[XemaSab]

55. you're welcome

n/t

[Barkley]

42. First the Africanize bees and now an Africanize sand storm

these people never stop.

[cliss]

58. Heh. Guess what else?

The tropical hurricanes which have been battering the US and the Caribbean -- originate right outside Africa. Just to the left of the continent.

But that's only fair, because it's my understanding that our gas-guzzling ways have contributed to the desertification of Africa. Somehow, the greenhouse effect has created drought conditions in some areas, like Africa and Australia. Totally unfair.

[kimpossible]

61. Is that why the full moon was red last week?

It seemed strange to see a "harvest moon" in July.

[MzShellG]

66. I noticed that eerie looking red moon too.

It did seem unusual. By the way, my daughter loves your screen name. :)

[Zorbuddha]

62. There are some seriously virulent microbes in that dust

Eventually someone in the press will address how problematic this might be.

[Zorbuddha]

64. Google "toxic dust storm". Here's some info

snip
...In Miami, for instance, passing African dust sometimes constitutes half of the breathable particulates in summer air—as much as 100 micrograms per cubic meter—jeopardizing the city's compliance with federal Clean Air Act limits.

As important as drifting soil particles might be to air-pollution standards, some hitchhikers in those dust clouds may be even more dangerous. Studies are now turning up viruses, bacteria, fungi, and toxic metals in intercontinental dust. Nobody has yet looked for hormone-mimicking chemicals and other such biologically active pollutants, but Ginger H. Garrison of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in St. Petersburg, Fla., has reason to suspect that they're blowing around as well.

snip


http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20011006/bob13.asp

http://ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2001/2001-08-29-06.asp

snip

Increasingly, the global dust "budget," as scientists refer to the total amount of matter in global circulation, is attracting scrutiny for its changing patterns, its possibly far-reaching effects on climate and ecosystems, and its potential impacts on public health. Dust and other particulate matter that occurs naturally (from volcanic eruptions, forest fires, live vegetation, and sea spray) makes up 90% of airborne aerosols; about 10% of aerosols in the atmosphere are caused by humans, mainly as residues from automobile and industrial exhausts.

That 10% used to be the main concern for health, but researchers see growing importance in naturally occurring dust storms. Dust motes averaging less than 2.5 µm in diameter are in the range of particles that research is showing may have serious health consequences. In addition to the mineral composition of the particles themselves, dust can carry with it a variety of hitchhikers including bacteria, fungi, and chemical contaminants, all of which may adversely affect health and the environment.

snip


http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2002/110-2/focus.html

[AuntiBush]

70. Anybody Care To Search for this sort of un-heard of thing?

I've never heard of this, ever. Below are ways of finding out though.

News - Search thousands of news stories
http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&gl=us

Print - Search the full text of books
http://print.google.com/

Scholar - Search scholarly papers
http://scholar.google.com/

Special Searches - Seach within specific topics
http://news.google.com/options/specialsearches.html

Web Search - Over 8 "billion" webpages
http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=iw

And this one give more search features:
http://news.google.com/help/features.html

[AuntiBush]

71. Ouch. First Search & Here's What I Found:

Go here From Scholarly Papers Google Section:

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=massive+dust+clouds&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Search

[SoCalDem]

72. This dust is killing the coral reefs and giving asthma to Carib kids

There was just a special on this last week.. It was fascinating. i will try to find the link and post it down-thread

[SoCalDem]

73. Found the link.. Nat'l Geo special

http://www.pbs.org/strangedays/episodes/onedegreefactor/experts/bio_monteil_michele.html

[hippiechick]

77. The locusts can't be far behind ....

:wtf:

[existentialist]

78. locusts

Seriously, these storms have been known to bring desert locusts from the Sahara across the Atlantic alive, and the last I knew the locusts were swarming in the Sahel, which is part of the starvation problem.