White powder from the sky
No, we’re not talking about snow.
Seems a reader starting e-mailing me last week about finding “white droplets that turn into a powder” all over his car. The first time he noticed it was Tuesday (Nov. 17) and then again on Wednesday.
“It comes down in pellet form for about 15 minutes. I have lived here for 40 years and never saw anything like this,” my correspondent wrote. “It is ‘9′ on the (litmus) scale for base. It is sticky when it first comes down. I was wondering if it is some kind of seeding. It happens both times before it rains. Not during…”
Well, my first reaction was this is dust (maybe with some fertilizer mixed in) kicked up by the gusty wind conditions, a notion seconded by the folks at the National Weather Service in Pendleton. And since prevailing surface winds are from the west-southwest, this would fit my correspondent’s observation that the “white droplets” stretched from Milton-Freewater to the airport.
I noticed some whitish gunk on my car Friday (which I washed off Saturday) and nothing since. So anyone else out there observing this mysterious stuff?
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I am glad to see this, my car is a mess. My husband thought it was dust. It is dusty spots all over my grey car and windows. It does not go away with rain. Glad I am not the only one noticing this.
Mebbe something to do with birds?