2025 Hurricane Season So Far: Saharan dust making an impact

BIG COUNTRY, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – Heading into late July, the 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season has been off to a relatively quiet start. While we’ve already seen a couple of named storms, most have been short-lived and lacked significant strength. Barry’s remnants made an impact during the Fourth of July weekend, with its leftover moisture surging into Texas, but otherwise, the storms haven’t caused any major damage.

One of the key reasons for this lack of activity has been the presence of Saharan dust, something we’ve started talking more about recently.

Each year, especially during the summer, large plumes of dry, dusty air, known as the Saharan Air Layer, travel westward from the African continent across the Atlantic. This dusty air acts as a barrier and weakening agent for tropical development. There are a few main reasons why this dust suppresses tropical activity:

• It brings extremely dry air into the atmosphere, disrupting the moisture that tropical systems need to grow and develop.
• It increases wind shear, which is detrimental to storms as it tends to tear them apart.
• It reflects sunlight, which keeps sea surface temperatures cooler, another limiting factor, since storms need warm water to fuel their strength.

Over the past couple of months, frequent bursts of Saharan dust have helped keep the tropics quiet. This pattern has worked in our favor by limiting tropical storms, but it’s also led to hazy skies and poor air quality at times, which nobody enjoys. Still, even though Atlantic waters have already warmed, the dust has helped prevent any systems from fully developing.

Looking ahead, however, things may start to change as we move closer to the peak of hurricane season.

As we head into August and September, the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, the influence of Saharan dust typically fades. By this time, sea surface temperatures are much warmer and often remain above average. Wind shear also begins to ease up, making conditions more favorable for tropical development.

So, while the first half of the season has been relatively calm, we’re not necessarily in the clear. The second half of the season could still turn active, and as we always say, it only takes one storm to bring major impacts. While we don’t typically see the same threats as coastal areas, we still experience increased tropical moisture, which can lead to heavy rainfall and flooding, like what we saw earlier this month.

As always, it’s important to stay weather-aware and tuned into a reliable forecast as we move into the more active part of the season.