Interesting residue left after a storm: Investigation!

My hometown, along with a significant chunk of the southern half of the UK, was hit by a severe storm recently. I started a thread on that subject before the event, and continued to post all the way through. After the event however, I detected something odd. Some copy and paste follows:

I have discovered something which might be of interest to those who appreciate the odd little details of life. When we came down to open the shop up this morning, the sun was shining strongly, and illuminated the state of the shop window, which appeared to be covered in a dusty looking substance...



Now, whatever this stuff is, it was not there before the storm hit, so one must assume that it was the storm which placed it there. I wiped at it, to see if it would come off without some sort of detergent assistance, and it streaked, like this:



This was a surprise to me, because as I mentioned, the substance appeared to be dusty particulate, rather than greasy, and yet there it was. A greasy substance then, which appears to be full of particles of something or another. I decided a closer inspection was in order, so I picked up a jewelers eyeglass ...



And observed the window through it. Sure enough, it revealed that whatever the greasy component may have been, there were several different sizes and colours of particles represented. Most of them appeared to be whitish in colour, but some appeared to be a light brown. I did my best to take a photograph of this, by placing the eyeglass over the camera lens, and this was the resulting shot:



Zooming this image a bit will reveal that not all the specks are actually white by the way. I know it is not plain from the un-zoomed image I have posted, but perhaps members would care to zoom for themselves, if indeed that proves possible.

I was somewhat interested by all of this, so I thought to myself that it might be an idea to check if other shops and buildings along my road had a similar coating, and lo and behold, the stuff is everywhere. Now then, we come to a point where some speculation is in order. I suggest that it is possible that some of these white specks will be salt, some will be silica, and the brown specks, I think, could be oil, which would explain the greasiness of the residue on the window.

This storm after all, was born in a crucible which is located not all that far from the BP Deep Water Horizon fiasco's origin point, so is it possible that the greasy residue is gulf oil, carried by the storm across the open water, and plastered all over my neighborhood?

Just a thought. I am going to contact the environment agency, and ask them about the possible causes of this greasy substance in any case. I have heard of many cases where storms have left dust, sand, mud, and a plethora of other coatings on things they have passed over, but this particular residue? Any thoughts people?

Copy paste ends.

Since making that discovery, and after consulting both the Environment Agency, and some members on the original thread, I thought that two things needed to happen. First and most importantly, I took some samples, and not just one or two, but six swabs off my window. I put them in sample jars, purchased at the pharmacy across the street from me (which by the way, was also coated in this junk, whatever it turns out to be.



The next step, will be figuring out which agencies, universities and other organisations, might want to run these things through a lab. I hope that I can find somewhere to send these where they will be useful to whomever receives them. The environment agency fellow that I spoke to on the phone sounded befuddled, and did not ask for samples. He just told me that nothing like this had been reported to the agency from anywhere else.

Tomorrow is my day off, so I am going to go to the local museum (which is staffed by some very awesome people who have always supported my every intellectual endeavor when I have asked it of them), to ask them if they know of anyone who might be able to take a look for me, at just what the heck this stuff is. I will take my camera, and my samples with me. I will also ask them, if they have no contacts on premises, if they know anyone local who could look my material over.

For completeness sake, heres the old thread:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

If any members have some idea as to what, precisely this stuff is, have seen anything like it before, or know people who have access to armies of laboratory gremlins, then please get in this thread people!

S&F OP

Very interesting, this could turn out to be nothing, but then again it could turn out to be something interesting so I will keep a check on this thread to see what you might discover.

please send me a U2U or something when you get to the bottom of it.

Usually a dusty coating is left behind when rain comes up through the South. This is mainly from sand lifted from the Sahara or Spain into the upper atmosphere and deposited with precipitation.

As the storm generated from warm air in the Caribbean meeting cold air from Canada, maybe the dust was picked up in the Caribbean?

I don't know why it was greasy? Maybe it was grease from the traffic pollution that was already on the window, then the dust left behind after the water evaporated settled on top of this?

Maybe it's something else and it will be interesting to read the results of any tests you can arrange to be undertaken.

reply to post by TrueBrit


its the residue of "flood foam "

akin to this

its just organic matter and pollutants whipped up by strong winds

reply to post by Cobaltic1978


Well, the one thing that I know it isn't, is a result of a mixture of storm water and general road dust from the street. The windows were cleaned to a pretty sparkling finish just twenty four hours previous to the storm.

Consider the roads that are near you.

When motorbiking in the rain, your clothes end up with a fine, sometimes gritty, greasy, dusty film. This is from the roads carbon deposits from exhaust fumes, rubber from the tires and of course oil/petrol/diesel particles.

This sounds at least similar to what you found on your shop. Thought it worth a mention.

reply to post by ignorant_ape


Hmmm... Well either way, I have to go and find out for sure, although I can see the potential link. I have never seen something like this after a storm before, and although storms like the one which recently passed over us are relatively rare around here, I would feel better having a chemical analysis done, before I leave this one be.

That said, the image you linked? The shade of that foam is exactly what I would expect if the collection of specks on my window were bound up in a foam. I tell you what though, I am glad I took some samples today, because apparently the windows are getting cleaned again either tomorrow or Friday!

reply to post by TrueBrit


I love it when someone goes the extra mile instead of just saying.. what?

I went for a walk in the rain some months ago here on the CA west coast, I was unable to do anything much for months after, I became weak and I had pain in my neck and a whole group of complaints that i am only now getting over. we used to love walking in the rain, the water left everything clean and fresh, that is not true any more!

reply to post by Biigs


I considered that Biggs, but there are two things that count against that possibility. Number one, is that I am used to that stuff, what it looks and feels like, and how it behaves when it is wiped at. However, this stuff is unfamiliar. Two, when we get heavy rain and wind, what normally happens is all the window muck ends up at the bottom of the window, or gets battered clear off the window because of the wind direction and the way the other buildings around funnel the air down the street. The windows were totally cleaned before the storm, and after the storm were totally coated in this ... stuff.

Anything is possible I suppose, but the time frame doesn't work for me.

reply to post by Char-Lee


After the rare occasion of rain here in Austin TX, my car is glazed over with a grainy, somewhat sticky film. Not so long ago a good rain storm was refreshing and I could rely on one to wash my car. I would certainly never walk in the stuff these days.

You may want to keep one or two of the samples back and give them to mates to hang onto - just in case.... If it turns out to be an interesting substance, your originals may disappear. I am just speculating here and being paranoid too, but it couldn't hurt to do this. Maybe a good idea to take extra samples from a different street if you can find any, where the environmental conditions are different but which was still subject to the same storm.

I live in Beijing and one day we suddenly discovered that all our 'stainless steel' fittings in the bathroom were covered in this green 'rust-like' spray which had eaten into our silver coloured ss fittings. We reckoned it was a chemical factory accident which puked out a cloud of chemicals into the atmosphere which somehow had found its way inside. it ate the silver coating off the (fake) stainless steel fittings on the glass shelves though. Scary to think that stuff is in the atmosphere and may go unreported too. Also, could easily have got into our lungs. The green rust-like stuff was like what happens when a battery starts to leak and gets on the metal which holds the battery in place.

So, maybe it was a chemical cloud which got caught up in the storm. Was it on anything else apart from the glass? Maybe leaves on trees nearby perhaps?

reply to post by Char-Lee


Fu-ku-shi-ma

could this be that angel hair substance that sometimes is find when an ufo shows up ? ..I mean with so many ufo sightings over London this month - www.abovetopsecret.com... - it could be, lol

S&F I remember hearing something similar after a storm there was some kind of gel 'o' type substance that was found to contain human white blood cells, if it weren't for people like you we wouldn't have knew that so I commend your inquisitive mind OP, really if it weren't for ATS and the people that come here I would find life boring. I love you guys. (((((((()))))))))

reply to post by TrueBrit


Kudos for both noticing the "strangeness" of the substance and for actually *doing* something about trying to get to the bottom of it.

:thumbsup:

Damn, I really miss that icon...

Anyway - please keep us posted as to what is found after analysis. My curiosity is certainly piqued...

reply to post by TrueBrit


Nice thread but I think it's a pretty normal occurrence.

reply to post by TrueBrit


Good thread, and thanks for letting us ride along on your experiences in the storm in your other thread on the subject. The goo has you in its grasp, and you have a chance to wrestle it to the ground and get a good analysis of the critter. Nice work!

Just putting these ideas in the pot;

Intelligent oil (as seen in X-Files) sprayed in the atmosphere beforehand.

Michael Prince (aka James Casbolt) has been told that his genetically modified blood has also been sprayed with the chemtrails.

(And before you say Michael Prince is a fraud I happen to know one of his stories is true. So at least some of his story is true.)

Whatever it is ,if its on your window then its also in your drinking water tanks
if you run a water filter ,you maybe able to scrape off some more gunge

GreyGoo
S&F I remember hearing something similar after a storm there was some kind of gel 'o' type substance that was found to contain human white blood cells, if it weren't for people like you we wouldn't have knew that so I commend your inquisitive mind OP, really if it weren't for ATS and the people that come here I would find life boring. I love you guys. ((((((((

)))))))))

This is interesting! We had showers one night maybe 2 years ago, and I think I made a post somewhere here about it. I went out to start the car to get the kids off to school, and everything was covered with goopy crap. I tried to squirt it off the windshield, it made it worse and was just gross and oily....I've never seen anything like it....good thread O/P!!