Have you heard of the global weather phenomenom of the African dust storm?  I've only seen one dust storm in my life.  It happened while I was driving along the I-10 freeway near the Mexican border when I was working as consultant in El Paso, Texas.  Growing up in Detroit, in the Great Lake state of Michigan, there wasn't any likelihood of seeing a dust storm.  But, during the months of my contract, experiencing the landscape and lifestyle in the areas around El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico, and Cuidad Juarez, Mexico was fairly unique for me, anyway.

After working for several weeks, I had finally began to be less distracted by the sights along my daily commute from the hospital back home to my hotel, but on this day I spotted an immense dark wall of clouds on the horizon.  At first, I thought it was simply a thunderstorm.  The entire day had been clear and sunny, so initially, I just became disappointed that the weather was going to be turning ugly, just at the time that I finally got off of work.

However, after stealing a few more quick looks at the approaching storm off to my side -- while also trying to drive safely on the freeway -- I noticed something wasn't quite right. Something was off, but since I had no prior experience or reference to the thing upon which I was furtively glancing, it took a little while to understand what I was actually seeing.

It was the color.  Those building storm clouds weren't gray, they were actually reddish brown.  And the perspective was off.  The front edge of the storm wasn't actually far off on the horizon, it was much closer and hanging low to the ground.  It seemed to be miles wide.

To me, it was an unusual sight of nature, but I imagine some of you who live in the southwest of the United States must see dust storms and dust devils (tornadoes) on a regular basis.  People living near the many deserts of the world must also see dust clouds frequently.  I've heard some news reports from Iraq about the sand storms that last way too long for anyone's tastes.

Now, I just heard on the radio that sometime early next week, I may be seeing my second dust storm.  I found that very, very odd -- since I live in Florida.

Apparently, the dust storm is so large as to be visible from satellite.  This cloud of dust is kicked up in north western Africa and actually travels across the Atlantic ocean on high altitude trade winds over the course of several days.  The dust cloud is about the size of the contiguous 48 states of the U.S.

[snark] I don't mean to seem ungrateful, but ... how is it fair that we send billions of governmental and privately-raised aid dollars to Africa and they send us back some dust?  That continent also seems to send some terrorists.  That continent allows hurricanes to spawn off its coast every year which destroy billions of dollars of property here in the south eastern United States, and the islands, and Mexico.  That's not fair at all.  This dust is just a further insult to our well-meaning intercontinental relations.

Just for that Africa, we're going to help you establish stable democracies, market economies, and free trade agreements with all of your countries on the continent.  That way, the next time you send us a hurricane, we'll send you the scourge of a totally pointless Starbucks or McDonalds franchise.  The next time you send us a dust storm, we'll build a tennis shoe factory or clothing sweat shop there.  Take that! [/snark]

Actually, it may all turn out much better at the end of the day.  Some people are forecasting that the combination of the latest hurricane (thank you very much) and the dust storm (thanks again) may create some unusually colorful sunrises and sunsets in Florida.  Murphy's Law: I hope it doesn't botch the space shuttle lift off, though.

[Headphones] :: Hurricane Jeanne is Gone - JfZ