Sand in the rain?

[Lorna_Fraser]

Recently after a downpour of rain, i noticed all the cars on my street wher covered in what looks like sand. Does anyone know what it is, and how it got into the rainclouds?

[woofgang]

here on the south coast, it is not uncommon for this to happen. Our local tv weather program once explained that it is picked up in the sahara! it blows into the air and is then held within the water droplets that make up cloud and carried all the way here to be released in the rain. amazing!!

[bernardo]

The same sort of thing can sometimes sweep up much heavier things in a hurricaney-thing and then carry them for miles before it loses enough energy and dumps them again - e.g. frogs, fishes, tadpoles, locusts etc.

[Tommy Hallam]

It could be the amount of salt within the rain because the rain does come from the sea where it has lots of salt

[KEJ2000]

Are you sure it isn't pollen from the trees overhead? Flowering trees produce pollen... I end up with a lot of it on my car after a rainshower, where I live, because the branches overhang my parking space and the rain washes the pollen straight down.

[Cetti]

I admit it might appear to look like pollen, but no, woofgang is right about the sand - I am also a southcoaster, and have heard the Sahara phenomena explained often on our local weather programme.

[Greedyfly]

Then there was that whole incident with the raining fish one time. And I have experienced it raining on one side of the road but not the other tooo!

[5029]

Pollen is microscopic and cannot be seen by the naked eye!! More likely to be sahara sand, blown over in times of strong winds (with a slight reddish colour)

[unknown]

i was once told by a reliable source (geography teacher) that it is small particles such as sand that cause water to condence in the air, im not quite sure how but i know that water on the sand causes it to get heavier and it is this that causes water to fall in droplets. apparently it wouldnt rain as it does if there wern't particles such as sand blowing in the air!