We probably won't see any tropical storms form near Africa, at least for the next week or so, thanks to a massive dust storm that kicked up over the Sahara Desert this week.
According to Jeff Masters, chief meteorologist of Weather Underground, the dust should temporarily cool the Atlantic tropical region where powerful storms start popping up at this time of year.
"June and July are the peak months for dust storms in the southwest Sahara, and this week's storm is typical for this time of year," he said.
Due in large part to all the dry and dusty air predicted to dominate the tropical Atlantic over the next seven days, "none of the reliable computer models is predicting Atlantic tropical cyclone formation during the first week of August," he added.
Forecasters said wind shear and dry air over the western Atlantic, the same conditions that did in Tropical Storms Chantal and Dorian earlier this month, also will make it hard for systems for form during the first couple weeks of August.
Conditions could be ripe for storm formation by the middle of the month, when the heart of the season begins. But it's also possible the dust will linger long enough to hamper some systems.
"Dust acts as a shield, which keeps sunlight from reaching the surface," Masters said. "Thus, large amounts of dust can keep the sea surface temperatures up to 1 degree Celsius cooler than average in the hurricane main development region, from the coast of Africa to the Caribbean."