“Dirty rain” showered parts of the Upper Midwest on Wednesday, due to powerful storms carrying plumes of dust from hundreds of miles away.
GAYLORD, Mich. – “Dirty rain” showered parts of the Upper Midwest on Wednesday, due to powerful storms carrying plumes of dust from hundreds of miles away.
Storms in Texas and New Mexico with gusts of 60-75 mph or more kicked up so much dust into the air that it not only caused visibility to plummet, but it was enough to be seen from space.
Satellite imagery taken on Wednesday shows the dust clouds, which can be seen as a beige band cradled by the white storm clouds between Texas and Louisiana.
Satellite image of the dust clouds.
(NWS Lubbock / FOX Weather)
And as a severe storm fired up in the Central U.S., dust was pulled northward and stretched out from the southern border of Texas into the Great Lakes region.
MULTIPLE CRASHES LEAVE AT LEAST 3 HURT AS DUST STORM SMOTHERS NEW MEXICO HIGHWAYS
The dust clouds mixed with winter precipitation and fell as “dirty rain” in many areas, including Wisconsin and Michigan.
Dirty rain.
(NWS La Crosse / FOX Weather)
The National Weather Service office in La Crosse, Wisconsin, shared a picture of a test tube holding rainwater made murky by dust that had adhered to raindrops along with some good-natured ribbing to their counterparts in Kansas.
“This your dust, (NWS Goodland)?” they posted on X.
“Maybe,” NWS Goodland posted back. “Want some more? That water isn’t completely brown yet.”
Farther east in Gaylord, Michigan, the NWS office there shared a picture of tiny clumps of brown dirt splattered within a layer of powdery white snow.
Dirty snow.
(NWS Gaylord / FOX Weather)
That NWS office also seemed to thank Goodland, Kansas for their unusual precipitation.
“A cursory glance at the snow board for a routine observation came back with more dust than snow… the “dirty rain” has made its way to northern Michigan!” NWS Gaylord said. “We appreciate your consideration in contributing to our topsoil layer, (NWS Goodland).”
The extent of the dust’s travels even surprised some FOX Weather meteorologists.
Photos show how
“Gaylord, Michigan, is the northern part of the mitten. I mean, that’s practically into the (Upper Peninsula),” said FOX Weather Meteorologist Marissa Torres. “To think it was able to travel and stay suspended for quite some time, and then it came down.”
She added: “A lot of people were posting pictures of the dirty rain. So, you turn the windshield wipers on, and you could see the mud.”