LONDON: Rainfall described as milky-colored, dusty or dirty fell across parts of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, with its origin is unclear.
Emergency Management officials in Walla Walla County, Washington were the first to report this unusual rain, posting on their Facebook page that this “‘white stuff’ on vehicles” is very likely volcanic ash from Volcano Shiveluch in Kamchatka Krai, Russia.
Spokane office of the weather service gathered samples of water, which will be sent for inspection at a lab. The light gray colored dirt present in the rainfall covered up all the vehicles and windows throughout the region came in as a shower that initiated in Pacific.
Another theory is that the milky substance is simply some kind of dust lifted up from a close-by storm that took place recently. The U.S. National Weather Service in Spokane, Washington reported it had recently begun getting info about a milky substance covering autos and houses.
Interestingly, that’s not the only theory for this relatively harmless phenomena. The Spokesman Review, based out of Idaho, even recently spoke with weather forecaster Mark Turner, who made the claim that the ash more likely came from the Mexican west coast after a small volcano near Colima, Mexico, erupted on Wednesday.
CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam said that the substance may have been brought from an active volcano located in southwest Colima, Mexico, which erupted on Wednesday, Feb. 4.
Others even suggested that the ash could have come from a massive seven-alarm fire which had occurred in Brooklyn, New York six days before.
“While many have speculated on the origins of the residue, the truth is that we really don’t know where it came from,” the US National Weather Service (NWS) team in Spokane reiterated Friday afternoon.
From the region, the volcano is located at a distance of more than 2,000 miles. According to the meteorologists, it might take some time before the exact cause is discovered due to the reason that nothing is displaying on satellite.
