Residents react to Sahara dust storm as it covers the Capital City

A rare occurrence, the Sahara dust storms reaching the U.S. and it reached Lincoln, Nebraska. 

A rare occurrence, the Sahara dust storms reaching the U.S. and it reached Lincoln, Nebraska. Saharan dust layers made the 5000-mile journey from Africa to the U.S. It covered Lincoln this weekend and left behind some unpleasant conditions. A local meteorologist says to see this event is uncommon.
“A Saharan dust layer is something that happens quite frequently,” said Van DeWald, a NWS Omaha meteorologist. “It happens all the time, I just think it is a rare occurrence for it to make it this far into the united states.”
With a foggy and sticky layer over the capitol city, he says it even made the air quality unsafe for residents.
“It moved up into the Nebraska and Iowa and the air quality significantly decreased very quickly and the air dropped to the unhealthful range for sensitive groups,” adds DeWald.
He says people with allergies and those with asthma could feel the effects. I spoke to some locals who say they saw and felt the aftermath of the dust.
“Hot, sticky, miserable, but it did have nice sunsets, yeah my eyes were itching a little more,” said Sandy Bickley.
“It looks like it was foggy, you know, when you look a mile or further away, it was foggier,” said Hayes Ntodel. “Never thought I’d see something like that.”
And meteorologists say that we may feel some of the effects of that storm in the coming days.