A potent low pressure system responsible for dropping very heavy snow across portions of the Mid West is also dropping something else curiously: orange snow. The wind field around the robust low heading into the Great Lakes is also drawing up strong southerly winds from the southwest. Western Texas, which has been unusually dry over the last several weeks, has lots of orange-tinted dry soil and dust that can be easily picked-up into the air on a windy day. As those strong winds tied to the low move over Texas, they help transp0rt that dust and dirt north into the storm where it is deposited with the falling precipitation.
Because of the color of the dirt and dust from Texas, snow in many areas is falling with an orange tint to it. The National Weather Service shared a screengrab from the GOES-East weather satellite which shows the orange dusty air being ingested into the storm to its north.
