Reports of Strange Powder Falling From the Sky in Multiple States

All we are is dust in the wind, apparently.

What Even

Accounts of a bizarre falling powder-like substance have emerged in multiple Mid-Atlantic states on the East Coast.

As a local CBS affiliate in Baltimore reports, there appears to be dust or powder falling from the sky and accumulating on cars and in yards in Maryland, northern Virginia, and West Virginia.

Though a definitive explanation hasn't yet been issued, CBS Baltimore notes that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) pointed to satellite imagery that showed dust from storms in Texas and New Mexico traveling to Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky shortly before people began seeing it on the East Coast.

In a statement issued on Friday, that same state environmental agency said it's investigating the "dust issue" and that there isn't yet a reason for "shelter in place" advisories.

Information Vacuum

Given the regional proximity to the toxic chemical-toting train derailment in Eastern Ohio — Berkely County, WV, which the state environmental department names in its press release, is about 215 miles from East Palestine, Ohio — and the seeming communication breakdown there, the information vacuum surrounding the strange dust is ripe for disinformation.

In an interview with the Associated Press, a spokesperson from the WVDEP said that there are currently no indications that the dust is associated with the East Palestine disaster, but as we all know, those sorts of official statements are often disregarded or treated with outright hostility by an increasingly large cohort of conspiracy theorists online — many of whom have seized upon conflicting official reports regarding the derailment to serve their ends.

As with the Ohio train derailment debacle, it's too soon to tell what's really going on with the strange falling dust happening in the West Virginia region. In the meantime, there'll be lots of conspiracy theories to fill the gaps in official reporting.

More on environmental weirdness: Florida Scientists Concerned About Army of Invasive “Jesus Christ" Lizards