"Brown Snow" Falls In Minnesota From Sand In Texas

news image
Special Stories
11 Apr 2019 9:30 PM
As folks stepped out Thursday morning to check how much snow they had gotten or to assess the conditions, they saw a brown tint to the fresh snow. https://twitter.com/TwisterMc/status/1116533395713138690 https://twitter.com/LogelinMike/status/1116482898809507840 https://twitter.com/mark_tarello/status/1116354136654659589 Some people even noticed the rain having a brown hue to it...once it evaporated off this person's car. https://twitter.com/cecelsu/status/1116403793145540610 The reason? The powerful winter storm was swirling across the central United States on Wednesday-Thursday, whipping winds of 50-100 miles per hour through many layers of our atmosphere. Dust and dirt began to be sucked into the southern extent of the storm in New Mexico and Texas on Wednesday. Switching color schemes, you can see the dust and sand in yellow colors here: Fast forward to Thursday morning where the low pressure helped pull all that dust and sand into the Upper Midwest! ***Above three images courtesy the University of Wisconsin CIMSS Blog Page. Full story on this topic here. The result was a dirtier snow than normal. https://twitter.com/NWSTwinCities/status/1116368935878844416 Even the National Weather Service office in La Crosse, Wisconsin had a little fun with the fellow NWS office in Amarillo. https://twitter.com/NWSLaCrosse/status/1116417977497337856 This has happened before. According to the University of Wisconsin's CIMSS Satellite Blog, a similar event occurred on April 10-11, 2008. Here's a link to that story. Thus, people weren't adding a brown filter to their pictures on social media Thursday. The snow really was on the brown side. If they say 'Don't eat the yellow snow' then we wonder if the same applies to the brown snow! For WeatherNation, Meteorologist Steve Glazier
All Weather News
More
Heavy Snow This Weekend for the Carolinas & Mid-Atlantic

Heavy Snow This Weekend for the Carolinas & Mid-Atlantic

Snow has started piling up around portions of

1 Feb 2026 3:20 AM
Cold Alerts Issued as 100K+ Customers Remain Without Power

Cold Alerts Issued as 100K+ Customers Remain Without Power

While it has now been about a week since a ma

1 Feb 2026 3:20 AM
Gulf-Effect Snow Possible This Weekend

Gulf-Effect Snow Possible This Weekend

You've been warned, iguanas. We've had glanci

1 Feb 2026 3:15 AM
Rain Finally Makes a Return to the Northwest

Rain Finally Makes a Return to the Northwest

More precipitation is in the forecast across

1 Feb 2026 3:00 AM
Lake-Effect Snow Continues, Shifts Toward Chicago This Weekend

Lake-Effect Snow Continues, Shifts Toward Chicago This Weekend

Persistent bursts of cold air have continued

31 Jan 2026 3:00 AM
Thousands Without Power as another Systems Brews

Thousands Without Power as another Systems Brews

ABOVE - Up to one inch of ice accumulated acr

29 Jan 2026 12:30 PM
Cold Air Sticks Around the Central to Eastern U.S.

Cold Air Sticks Around the Central to Eastern U.S.

Temperatures have been record-breaking with h

29 Jan 2026 2:50 AM