Harmattan Season

It is Harmattan season.  We get a thin coat of dust/sand on our vehicles if they sit long.  The sky is hazy at times -- looks smokey.  Today was nice and clear though and it is still very humid and hot.   They say that January and February are our cold months in Ghana -- but the lowest temperature is going to be about 70 F or 20 Celcius.  The locals say that the harmattan wind will blow until about the end of January and they don't like the dust in the atmosphere.

The attached picture shows the haze from the Harmattan winds.

Here is what google says about this:

The Harmattan is a dry and dusty West African trade wind. This northeasterly wind blows from the Sahara into the Gulf of Guinea between the end of November and the middle of March (winter). The temperatures can be as low as 3 degrees Celsius.^[1] The name comes from or is related to an Akan cognate.^[2] On its passage over the desert it picks up fine dust particles (between 0.5 and 10 micrometres)

In some countries in West Africa, the heavy amount of dust in the air can severely limit visibility and block the sun for several days,^[3] comparable to a heavy fog. It can even break the trunk of the pine trees, growing in that region, through their dryness. The effect caused by the dust and sand stirred by these winds is known as the Harmattan haze, which costs airlines millions of dollars in cancelled and diverted flights each year,^[4][5] and risks public health by increasing meningitis cases.^[5] The interaction of the Harmattan with monsoon winds can cause tornadoes.^[1] Humidity drops to as low as 15 percent and can result in spontaneous nosebleeds for some. The wind can cause severe crop damage.^[6]