Yellow Dust over 70 miles

Ok, I live in Northern Ohio right on the edge of Lake Erie. It's the middle of spring here and nothing really special is happening.

I got up for work yesterday morning and on my way to work I noticed a large amount of yellow 'dust' on my vehicle. It was very visible (black car). I jumped in the car, and cleaned the windsheild and the liquid cleaner clumped the yellow crap on the side of my windsheild.

Now, I live in the country, so at first I considered it may be Pollen, since spring is clearly upon us here in Ohio. But I've lived here 27 years and I've never seen pollen this bad. If it is pollen, then perhaps this happens in cycles, who knows. But what stumped me the worst, is on my drive to work, in Cleveland, (roughly 70 miles away) I saw the dust there too, in the middle of the city, where no trees grow.

Now, I understand that weather systems can carry winds that far, even farther, but how is it possible that the same amount of "yellow stuff" was on my car then on the parked vehicles in Cleveland some 70 miles away?

I brought this up in chat, and some of the ideas the guys came up with was a factory, volcanic ash, pollen, etc.

- There are no factories capable of putting out that much sutt in my area.
- Unless a new volcanoe popped up in the Ohio Valley, then I doubt it's a volcanoe.
- I've never in my life (or some of my older workmates) seen that much pollen accumulate in my life time in Ohio

I also firmly believe if it was a huge amount of pollen, the the local pollen counts would be high..

According to:
www.pollen.com...

Pollen levels are high.. but they are always high this time of the year..

Was I crop dusted?

Fogging for mosquito's?

Thats the only thing that came to my mind.

more then likely it sounds like Pollen. Especially after its been a rainy/snowy winter/spring season the pollen count will be high. People in NY are already sneezing their butts off and eyes are redder then hell. If you guys had that unusual warm weather in March in the 80's. I think it also caused the plants and trees to blossom a little sooner.


Pie

It sounds like pollen to me. I live in Central Missouri and my vehicles, deck, deck furniture are coated with a thick layer of yellow pollen from the various oaks around the house. It even goes right through the screen mesh; if my black cat lays in the windowsill, she will get a slight yellow film deposited on her also. Its extremely fine and can we transported long distances on air currents.

Quiet Soul,

I'm in Southcentral PA and we get the same yellow dust every year about this time. Here, at least, it's just pollen coming from the pine trees. With only a gentle breeze you will literally see yellow clouds blowing across the yard, woods, etc. It typically only lasts about a week, or so. Starting off barely noticeable, then getting rather heavy [the clouds] and finally towards the end of the cycle all returns to normal. Though, when at it's heaviest the yellow dust is Everywhere. Don't even think about washing a car as it will be covered by the next morning. It actuallly gets so heavy at times that it collects on the surface of our pond and makes for a yellowish "algae-like" covering that lasts until the first heavy rainstorm. Looking forward to that right now.

[edit: to add] Had you posted this about a week ago I could have gotten some good video of the "clouds" coming from the pines. Bugs the heck outta me every year as it gets in and on Everything.

[edit on 5/5/2006 by 12m8keall2c]

Originally posted by ThePieMaN
more then likely it sounds like Pollen. Especially after its been a rainy/snowy winter/spring season the pollen count will be high.

Yeah, the same thing here the other day. It was definitely pollen all over my car. And we're having a very high pollen count here in Michigan, I believe.

do not worry about the pollen,watch out for the yellow snow!!!

I live in southern ohio.. We have pretty bad pollen down here too.. It coated my entire deck, deck furniture, etc.

It happened last year too. Of course my neighbor has like 1289030127893091823981238910 flowers in his back yard.

Same thing happened to me in Toronto yesterday no trees around me just freeway... went out to the car and it was dusted too. Seems like a lot of pollen... my car is blue and it looked yellow on the side with the wind and the top around the roof rack. I tasted the dust just now and it is not bitter. Pollen.

I live in SE Michigan just like cmdr.
Of course, I could just be oblivious.

Here's a link to a US pollen map:
www.pollen.com...
About 1/3 of the country is in the high area.

You can put in your zipcode and see what the major causes of pollen are and how high the reading.
It does seem like the numbers are abit higher than last year. Although, I work outside with plants and I haven't noticed :shrugs:

On this page, you can see which plants are active in your state:
www.pollen.com...

Also, I'm moving this to fragile earth.

I live in Sandusky Oh and was working outside the other day and seen amazing clouds of pollen flying from pine trees. Never seen anything like it before. Must be the yellow dust you seen.

picture doesnt do justice for what I seen but similar.







[edit on 5/21/2006 by ghoulardi]