A Warning on Saharan Dust in Cuba

Cuban researcher of the Forecasting Center at the Meteorology Institute, Eugenio Mojena, warned here about the presence in current summer season of dusty clouds generated by Saharan desert storms, reported Granma journal.

Those clouds are characterized by having high concentrations of particles PM 10 and PM 2,5 deemed as a very high risk for the appearance of respiratory problems, highlighted the newspaper.

Besides, they accumulate a high charge of biological compounds including fungi, virus, bacteria and dust mites, lots of them transmitters of different diseases.

The meteorological event that used to being from May to August, with peaks between June and July, was perceived in Cuba this year in March, Mojena said.

According to the expert, in June it was observed a remarkable raise of the event in western, central and eastern regions. With a higher or lower intensity, those conditions have prevailed during great part of summer, including the first dozen of August, estimating values of dust concentration in the atmosphere over Cuba above regular figures, Mojena pointed out.

The specialist highlighted that in 2017 around two thirds parts of harmful compounds contained in the 'evil' clouds in the Caribbean correspond to particles PM 10 and PM 2,5.

Therefore, the Institute has kept in touch with the Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health to coordinate the execution of different studies to prove the incidence of Saharan dust in life quality.

Although in a lesser extent, Namibian dust desert and those existing in Asia can arrive at the island while that in winter months certain quantities from North American deserts also come to the country.

According to the researcher, from the present chronic drought in Sahara since the 70s of the previous century, the number of storms has significantly increased there. In such sense, dust quality expelled to the atmosphere is registering an alarming growth, he ensured. To Mojena, the high satellital tech allows today monitoring and studying the occurrence of dust storms in desert, their formation and further movement, and finally their characterization.