Ticker for December 17, 2003

                
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December 17, 2003  December 17, 2003  December 17, 2003  December 17, 2003



Windborne Oklahoma Dirt Reaches Great Lakes States

Monday's Ticker mentioned, among other things, significant blowing dust
behind a dry line.

Monday's Ticker is archived here, for posterity:
http://ticker.mesonet.org/select.php?mo=12&da=15&yr=2003

The following pictures just came in from the Ticker Spouse Volunteer
Photography Network.  The view is westward from Norman, about half an
hour before sunset. You can see the invasion of dirt, largely from the
(recently harvested) cotton fields of west Texas and the high plains
of eastern New Mexico:




Here's the next chapter to the story:

Yesterday, Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel contacted the Entire
Ticker Staff about a red-tinged deposit left by light rain in the
region.  His office had received a number of inquiries about a
brownish-red grime that showed up on cars, streets, lawns and houses
Tuesday morning.

It turns out that atmospheric patterns supported the transport of
Monday's blowing dust all the way to Chicago and beyond, with an
additional healthy helping of Oklahoma topsoil.

Here's a link to a related story from the Chicago Sun-Times:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-dust17.html

Oklahoma's characteristic red soils draw their color from several types
of iron oxides.  So, the Ticker prefers to think of yesterday's event
as a donation of an essential nutrient from Oklahoma's farmlands
to the Midwest's.