BALTIMORE, MD—No, that’s not pollen.  White powder from a mid-week dust storm has been spotted falling from the skies in parts of West Virginia and Maryland.

The dust began appearing in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia on Thursday night and by Friday morning, it was also falling in western Maryland.

The Hampshire County 911 Center on Thursday night asked West Virginia residents to call its non-emergency number to report the falling dust.

Eastern Panhandle Working Fires, meanwhile, advised residents to “shut doors and windows and avoid outdoors” until the “mysterious” substance could be identified.

By late Friday morning, NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison confirmed that the powder was from a massive dust storm in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Additional information can be found below.

Finally, leveraging the enhanced forward scattering geometry from @NOAASatellites #GOES18/#GOEswest, the airborne blowing dust signature can be seen as far to the east as West Virginia: https://t.co/z9LHhZP8Nw; #WVwx pic.twitter.com/KdZPM9G2zF

— UW-Madison CIMSS (@UWCIMSS) February 23, 2023

🚨#BREAKING Multiple reports of unknown White dust / Particles falling out of the sky ⁰⁰📌#WestVirginia | #Maryland ⁰⁰Currently Multiple people across West Virginia into Maryland area are reporting a (unknown white dust/film descending from the sky. Some local fire… https://t.co/k8MRFgtHXf pic.twitter.com/BBwIX5W80t

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) February 24, 2023