As summer ends in West Africa, dust activity typically decreases, although dust storms can still occur. An example was a significant dust plume that swept across Mali and neighboring regions in early September 2026.
The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured an image of this event on September 5, 2026. According to atmospheric scientist Tianle Yuan from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, storms like these are often linked to haboobs—intense dust storms driven by strong winds.
Following the image capture, a broader satellite view revealed that aerosols from the dust storm were moving westward over the Atlantic Ocean. However, full transatlantic crossings of dust are less common after summer, typically occurring when the Saharan Air Layer, a mass of dry, dusty air, is active during late spring and summer.
Looking forward, the developing El Niño could alter these patterns. Yuan indicates it might affect dust activity in the Sahel and Mali by shifting the Intertropical Convergence Zone and changing convection patterns. Drier conditions could leave more sediment available for winds but also result in fewer intense storms to generate such dust plumes. The connection between these factors can be significant yet complex to analyze for specific events.
Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.
