The aim of this presentation is to understand the impacts of Saharan dust outbreaks on West African climate using a 3-dimensional, hydrostatic, sigma vertical coordinate regional climate model (REGCM). We performed a simulation with the non aerosol version of the model (control case) followed by another simulation using the desert dust module (dust case) implemented in REGCM which includes emission, transport, gravitational settling, wet and dry removal and calculation of dust optical properties for 2005 and 2006. Vertical profiles of dynamic and thermodynamic parameters obtained from both versions of the model are intercompared and validated using African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) experiments data. Aerosol optical depth derived from the desert dust version was also compared to available observational data such as the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) program data at some West African stations.