Iowa and the Midwest Were Hit By Rare Dirty Rain

Winter Storm Wesley was as advertised. VERY powerful. The winds across Iowa today made that abundantly clear. And if you thought you noticed an unusual amount of dirt on your vehicle after it rained, you were right. The rain really did contain dirt... dirt that wasn't from Iowa.

According to the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities, the storm was so powerful it picked up dirt from as far away as West Texas and even New Mexico and deposited it on a number of Midwestern states, including Iowa. By the way, New Mexico to Iowa is approximately 1,000 miles.

KWQC Chief Meteorologist Erik Maitland says the dirt "was lofted into higher altitudes amidst the entire system." It wasn't just the rain, either. In parts of Minnesota where snow fell today, that snow is covered with a coating of dirt.

The satellite loop video at the bottom of this story shows the dust (in yellow), beginning to head northeast on Wednesday.

Click HERE to see the satellite loop from today as the dust makes its way through Iowa and several other states. Pretty amazing stuff from a whopper of a storm.