If you woke up to your vehicle covered in dust or "dirty rain" Thursday morning, you're not alone.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported a powerful storm system that kicked up strong winds and a large dust storm across the southwestern U.S. on Wednesday produced a "dangerous" dust cloud that reached southern Ontario.
NOAA noted the dust cloud swept across parts of New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma and according to Environment Canada, the "dirty rain" was also reported over southern Ontario.
"The winds associated with this weather system reached severe limits over extreme southwestern Ontario, with a gust of 94 km/h reported at Windsor Airport," noted Environment Canada.
Environment Canada Meteorologist Trudy Kidd told CK News Today this "dirty rain" is very rare and traveled a long way.
"Anecdotally, I've been answering calls from media and questions from partners and public alike for the last two years and this is the first time I've been commenting on dust settling on surfaces here," said Kidd.
NOAA said it tracked a large amount of airborne dust as it wrapped into the storm system that pushed across the U.S.
"Residents as far away as Pennsylvania reported "dirty rain" as the dust fell from the clouds in the rain drops," said NOAA.
Kidd said the jet stream swooped the dust from the area of low pressure in Texas and Oklahoma and pushed it north.
"Once it gets up into the higher elevations, it can be transported. Just like we see pollution often transported from the U.S. to here, we can get the same with dust," she said.