SPOKANE, Wash., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Emergency officials said a white milky substance that has blanketed parts of Washington and Oregon could be ash from volcanoes thousands of miles away, remnants of nearby wildfires or even dust kicked up in a recent storm. The source remains a mystery.
The U.S. National Weather Service in Spokane, Washington said it recently started getting reports of a milky substance covering cars and homes. Since then, local residents have been posting pictures of murky water and dirty raindrops.
"While many have speculated on the origins of the residue, the truth is that we really don't know where it came from! We are continuing to investigate and have reached out to other offices for assistance in recreating atmospheric flows from the past several days," the weather service said in a Facebook post. "We've also reached out to other agencies that may have collected samples appropriate for testing."
Walla Walla County Emergency Management originally said the ash was from Volcano Shiveluch, located about 4,000 miles away in northeast Russia. The Spokesman-Review later reported it could be from a volcano in Mexico, about 2,000 miles away. The agency then said it could be a result of varied volcanic activity.
Rainwater collected from our rain gauge today. Rather murky. Still not sure why. #wawx #cloudyrain pic.twitter.com/bp225Mfv50
— NWS Spokane (@NWSSpokane) February 6, 2015"Dirty" rains fell at our office & across much of Spokane. We are looking into source of this phenomena. #wawx pic.twitter.com/akad4Am3M2
— NWS Spokane (@NWSSpokane) February 6, 2015
