Sahara Storms May Reduce Atlantic Storms

Dust storms swirling out of the Sahara Desert may reduce hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean, a new study suggests.

The findings aren’t conclusive, but researchers led by Amato T. Evan of the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that years with more African dust had fewer tropical storms, and years with less dust had more storms.

The study is reported in Tuesday’s issue of Geophysical Research Letters. Evan and his colleagues used satellite images to study the amount of African dust blown out over the Atlantic from 1982 to 2005 and compared that with tropical storm activity.