The mysterious layer of dirt that caked cars, muddled pools, and bewildered residents in the east San Gabriel Valley, may be solved.
AQMD received several complaints from residents in Glendora, Azusa, Covina and West Covina, who reported an usually thick layer of dust appearing on their cars, driveways, sidewalks and pools Wednesday morning.
AQMD gathered test samples from the mystery matter, and while lab results are still pending, an AQMD representative offered a likely explanation for the dust – wind.
While the Santa Ana winds battered parts of Los Angeles County Wednesday, the winds remained quiet in Glendora and surrounding communities. But the high winds – which blew as hard as 70 mph in the San Gabriel mountains in the early morning hours – picked up soil deposits, which settled to the foothill communities below, said Jill Whynot, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer Engineering for AQMD.
Whynot said that the recent wildfires in the Angeles National Forest may have created the loose, ash-like soil.
