A massive cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert blanketed most of the Caribbean on Monday in the biggest event of its kind this year as it heads toward the United States.

The cloud extended some 3,200 kilometres from Jamaica to well past Barbados in the eastern Caribbean, and some 1,200 kilometres from the Turks and Caicos Islands in the northern Caribbean down south to Trinidad and Tobago.

“It’s very impressive,” said Alex DaSilva, lead hurricane expert with AccuWeather.