Dust cloud expected over city

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Dust cloud expected over city

BY ROBERT GARCIA

Times staff writer

An African dust cloud expected in Laredo and South Texas within the next two

days will not produce the hazy conditions brought on by the 1998 Mexico

forest fires, KGNS meteorologist " Heatwave " Berler said Monday.

The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission reported Monday that a

large dust cloud from the Sahara Desert in Africa was moving into south

Texas and spreading to other parts of the state by Tuesday and Wednesday.

These dust clouds can cause haze and lower visibility, the TNRCC added.

Levels of particulate matter measured by the TNRCC at its Brownsville

monitor are twice normal levels but below federal standards of 150

micrograms of dust per cubic meter of air.

Berler agreed that the dust cloud could bring on additional mold and may

affect people with allergies.

Berler said the Mexico forest fires were very easy to spot on weather

computers as Mexico City had visibility of three-quarters of a mile.

The meteorologist explained that if the dust clouds do move into the region

they will not produce the same conditions.

Satellite technology has tracked sand in the Sahara Desert that rises into

the dust clouds and travels across the planet into south Texas.

The dust clouds move across the ocean one to three times during the summer,

meteorologist Lambeth told the Associated Press Monday.

" We've only known what it is in recent years, since the advent of satellite.

Prior to that they used to just call it Gulf Haze, " Lamberth told AP.

Satellites have been tracking the cloud all week and while the largest

particles have settled out, the remaining fine dust includes mold spores.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

(Staff writer can be reached at 728-2543 or by e-mail at

robert@...)