Ever heard of the butterfly effect?

It's an illustration of Chaos Theory -- and suggests that a flutter of a butterfly's wings can eventually stir up a hurricane.

Now a study suggests something even smaller should be credited with causing the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season to be less than expected.

Researchers say that Saharan dust storms containing tiny specks of dust suppress hurricane activity in the Atlantic.

After studying the past 25 years of satellite data they found that there were fewer dust storms in intensely active hurricane seasons.

And in years when there were fewer hurricanes -- like this season -- the dust storms were even stronger.

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