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A person stands with an umbrella in a steady rain at the Martin Luther KIng Jr. Memorial in Washington January 18, 2015. Monday will mark the U.S. national holiday in memory of the fallen civil rights leader, who was assassinated in 1968. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Mysterious "milky rain" was seen over Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Meteorologists were baffled with this rainfall, while the residents of the states were trying to determine what the substance was by filling glasses of the rain.

According to the Daily Mail, the rain could be a result of the weather system being infected by eruptions of the Sakurajima volcano, which has been active in January and had about 3 to 4 explosions a day. Recently, an ash plume, which was about 3 miles long, was seen from the volcano. Some others believed the Shiveluch volcano in Russia could have caused the mysterious rain.

The National Weather Service of Spokane was looking into the matter. It said that the organisation did not know where the rain came from. It went on to say that the officials were investigating and were reaching out to other offices for assistance for recreation of the atmospheric flows.

The NWS explained that it had contacted other agencies as well who would have collected samples that would be appropriate for testing. It added that the samples would be sent to laboratories for analysis.

The NWS thought that the rain could be from a storm that took place in Nevada. The storm could have resulted in photos which showed dust that was odd-milky or grey-coloured.

The office of the Walla Walla County in Washington wrote on Facebook that the officials had received reports of the "white stuff" on vehicles. The statement on Facebook went on to state that the ash was most likely from the Schiveluch volcano in Russia, which was about 4,000 miles away. It added that the volcano ejected ash to a distance of about 22,000 feet towards the end of January. It explained that the ash had been deposited in an area which included both Washington and Oregon.

Derek Van Dam is a meteorologist and a weather anchor with CNN. He said that the dust could be because of an eruption from a volcano in Mexico, which is at a distance of about 2,000 miles away from Washington.

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