Many of you called and email about what looked like mud falling from the sky late Tuesday afternoon. By sundown, everything was coated in dirt.
People weren't sure if it was pollution, but it was getting all over cars and windows.
"I don't know, I've never seen this before," said Magne Turoy, who is from Norway. "I'm used to rain, lots of rain, but I've never seen this before."
The dirty rain left vehicles across San Antonio looking like they’d been taken off-roading in the mud. The cars are covered, but that coating is not quite dust, not quite dirt and not quite mud.
International tourists visiting San Antonio stopped News 4 reporter Leila Walsh to ask if the rain in America is often brown. Certainly, it's not and for many that's what makes this so hard to explain.
“I've seen pollen and there's a difference between pollen and caked up debris,” said longtime San Antonio resident Tony Harris. “I detail cars for a living, but I don't know what it is or where it is coming from, but someone has to have an answer.”
There were reports of the muddy rain in Boerne and New Braunfels too.
Storm Tracker 4 Meteorologist Jennifer Broome explains that the heavy winds Tuesday kicked the dust and dirt thousands of feet into the atmosphere. The dust simply combined with the rain as it fell resulting in the ‘muddy rain.’
Basically it's a Texas dust storm meets a rain storm. It's unusual here but dirty rain and even brown snow happen on a fairly regular basis for West Texas and the Panhandle.
San Antonio car washes should be extremely busy Wednesday.
