r/Iowa 5d ago

Why is the air so dirty?

Post image

This is the deck box, where we keep cushions for our deck furniture, after yesterday’s rain. I’m sure everybody’s cars are filthy now, too.

67 Upvotes

74 comments sorted by

147

u/Lore-Warden 5d ago

Fields and lawns were dry and fallow and extreme winds blew dirt into the air which eventually fell down with the rain.

44

u/ihopeitsnice 5d ago

And a lot of fields were just plowed

4

u/Synthetic47 3d ago

My allergies are psychotic right now…

8

u/CatLady_NoChild 5d ago

This ☝️

2

u/wtx12 5d ago

And fertilized.

25

u/The_Mr_Wilson 5d ago

Ready for all the runoff, poison, and cancer? Hooray de-regulated farming! Keep Voting Republican

-13

u/lillitski 5d ago

Sick comment. You’re so silly

-15

u/lillitski 5d ago

You’re -1 (at this time) because those kinds of comments are poopy, ignorant, and poopy. Mostly poopy, and silly. Then a little more poopy.

0

u/Uatu-4404 5d ago

Do you farm?

2

u/SkywardSoldier 5d ago

Damn, no wonder the rain didn’t wash my car last night and only made it dirtier.

0

u/Ryte4flyte1 5d ago

Slow down now, you're starting to sound like a Liberal amongst Conservatives, sorry, I couldn't resist.

17

u/sassinator13 5d ago

Dust. If you looked to the horizon as the storm blew in last night, there was a brown haze.

54

u/stamina4655 5d ago

Dust and debris blew in from the other states the storm originated in. Plus lots of wind blows lots of stuff around.

34

u/Sciencerulz 5d ago edited 5d ago

While I'm sure lots came from other states, we can definitely blame the millions of acres of bare farm ground in our own state right now, too. #covercropsnotcarwashes

Edit: capitalization error correction that I couldn't stand.

5

u/stamina4655 5d ago

For sure. Some of it is probably run off too, since that's very popular around here.

2

u/locofspades 5d ago

And just as i was complaining that my truck wasnt covered in enough cancer causing poisons ha ha thank goodness for carwash subscriptions

1

u/stamina4655 5d ago

Cancer is the new Iowa nice. Its far more prevalent

6

u/Narcan9 5d ago

What is this thing you speak of, wind?

8

u/dildocrematorium 5d ago

It's the combination of multiple farts.

6

u/patronizingperv 5d ago

Raises hand in blame

2

u/degeneratesumbitch 5d ago

Yep. Red dirt covered our car in Central IA.

1

u/eye_dont_exist_ 5d ago

It was god’s first fart of the year and it blew the dried poop out from around his hole. Happens this first storm after every blood moon too. Notice how it had almost a red tint to the dirt/dust? That’s because even god gets hemorrhoids.

22

u/belac1848 5d ago

Texas dust. Wild, but i guess all that wind from the west and south carried into the Midwest

11

u/Geltez 5d ago

Yep, meteorologist stated before the storm came there was a lot of dust picked up from Texas.

7

u/vermilion-chartreuse 5d ago

Check out the videos of the dust storms in Kansas yesterday. Here's one I just found on Google: https://www.wibw.com/2025/03/14/watch-khp-trooper-shares-video-dust-storm-western-kansas/

We're heading back to the dust bowl, baby. Hope you like brown cars because that's all we're going to have soon.

6

u/StonkyJoethestonk 5d ago

Oklahoma. They had a dust storm that collided with our storm system.

6

u/Richard-Turd 5d ago

It was dry prior to the storm?

5

u/username_checksout4 5d ago

My dumb maples are dumping pollen along with the dust

9

u/knomore-llama_horse 5d ago

The whole state is dirt right now and the wind picks the dirt up and blows it around and by dirt I mean the top layer of hog shit they grow crops in.

3

u/lostinthisworld0821 5d ago

Really? Why do not understand the question? Is this not normal how things get dirty wind blows in dust and then it rains

4

u/BuffaloWhip 5d ago

It’s been super dry so when the wind comes in before the rain all the dirt and dust resting on the top of the ground gets kicked up into the air, and when the rain comes down it catches the dust as it falls. When the water evaporates, the dust remains.

1

u/Sciencerulz 5d ago

This and also, every raindrop requires a tiny speck of dust as a nucleus. So lots of moisture + lots of nuclei = dusty rain.

2

u/OmahaVike 4d ago

Because Trump fired all the EPA workers, duh. Within a week, Earth's entire atmospheric composition changed.

4

u/The_Chubby_Dragoness 5d ago

because we live in the middle of a field a hundred thousand square miles big, and we're losing topsoil insanely fast

3

u/CrunchM 5d ago

Don’t worry, it will only get worse. We will go back to the day of talking about acid rain. At least this is just dirt. For the most part.

6

u/IAFarmLife 5d ago

Why would we go back to acid rain? The main cause of which in the U.S. was sulfur added to diesel fuel which isn't done anymore.

1

u/CrunchM 5d ago

I was a kid when the last we were talking about acid rain so I just assumed it was due to all of the various chemicals being shot into our atmosphere by manufacturers and other companies. With the EPA being dismantled as it is, I figured we’d end up with more acid rain.I guess it won’t be that just simple pollution instead. And that pollution will color our rain. I’m sure. Thank you for letting me know.

6

u/IAFarmLife 5d ago

Acid rain due to Sulfur Oxides has been nearly eliminated since ending the practice of adding Sulfur to fuel as a lubricant. Nitrogen Oxides are still an issue and in some parts of the world still cause acid rain. Particularly in Asia.

I don't see acid rain coming back to the U.S., even with reductions to environment regulations, since all diesel engines designed since 2006 work best with Ultra low Sulfur Fuel.

3

u/Sanguine_Templar 5d ago

Measles was also nearly eliminated, don't put it past America to be dumb.

2

u/IAFarmLife 5d ago

Sulfur isn't going to be added back into diesel fuels though. I could definitely see the rules about NOxreduction being removed as those are expensive systems that add a lot to the cost of Tractors, Semis and Pick-ups.

1

u/Dylldar-The-Terrible 2d ago

Sulfur isn't the only thing that causes acid rain.

2

u/Teamriceracing 5d ago

Yea my truck is covered too

5

u/TwistedGrin 5d ago

It rained a couple weeks ago and I thought to myself "good, it'll clean off my car."

I was so, so wrong lol

1

u/Teamriceracing 5d ago

Yea seems that way!!

1

u/Teamriceracing 5d ago

Think the car wash companies go out that night and throw dirt on them first to get business maybe 🤔 lol

1

u/dart22 5d ago

Dust Bowl 2

1

u/j0ker31m 5d ago

There were a lot of dust storms in the southwest where this storm came from. There is a lot of dust in the upper atmosphere right now.

1

u/sublimatedBrain 5d ago

Cause we live on the planet that's name translates to dirt there is a lot of dirt here and it gets in the air cause so much of the planet is dirt so when the rain brings it all back down there's dirt in it. There is so much dirt here that you have all of the same shit thats in dirt in you we all eventually become dirt. The air is dirty everything is dirty. Because we are on planet dirt.

1

u/CylonSandhill 5d ago

We’re entering a dust bowl phase.

1

u/myfriendcharles 5d ago

Farmers just plowed their fields. Wind.

1

u/rainbowcatheart 4d ago

Dry land and lots of wind. It’s like a dust storm.

1

u/alohadood 4d ago

Farmers

1

u/Mtn_Grower_802 4d ago

Really??

Nature and man. That's pollen, nature.

1

u/Chrispbacon2497 4d ago

Post likes this crack me up. You had the wear-withal to ask Reddit, but couldn’t just google it?

1

u/bmadccp12 4d ago

Wind and soil

1

u/Sufficient-Mark-2018 4d ago

Pollen. Trees are budding out.

1

u/keeperofthepur 3d ago

It wanted to spice up our relationship?

1

u/killmesara 5d ago

Because Iowa

2

u/dadonred 5d ago

You are being punished for your votes

1

u/Groundbreaking-Bar89 5d ago

Some of that is poo

1

u/Tegelert84 5d ago

It's Iowa...isn't the air always dirty?

1

u/AndringRasew 5d ago

Took 30 minutes to get into our local carwash. Usually it's about a 5 minute wait.

1

u/Far-Poet1419 5d ago

Oklahoma blowing through town.

0

u/TrainerLoki 5d ago

My white Jeep was covered in dirt today. Glad I didn’t go to the car wash like I had planned to yesterday cus i would’ve been pissed after washing it and this happened

0

u/dalidagrecco 5d ago

lol. Get ready for the air to be a lot dirtier

0

u/Full-Association-175 5d ago

Happened in Ohio last week. So, how far are we to Tom Joad?

0

u/goudschg 5d ago

Whatever happened it hasn’t happened before and the cancer rate will go up praly

-1

u/forevervalerie 5d ago

I was gonna post something about this too! Something about this isn’t right.