Ernesto is now a tropical storm, just below hurricane strength. Intensity will likely fluctuate and it may technically become a hurricane again briefly before finally becoming extratropical in the next 3-4 days as it passes Vinland (Newfoundland for you revisionists). The biggest risk from the storm are rough waves and rip currents along most of the Atlantic facing beaches of the US East Coast, Canada, and northern Caribbean. No fancy map today …
Looking at this morning’s satellite images, it’s striking how much dust and ash is in the air. Here is the full disk view as the sun comes up over the East Coast
Notice the plume of Saharan Dust coming off of Africa, as well as the plume of ash coming off of Canada from the many fires up there this summer. Here’s a closer view of West Africa and the tropical Atlantic …
There is also some glare from the sun reflecting off of the water, but the dust plume is enormous!