Red dust on cars

By Tony Saunders-Davies

An interesting e-mail from John Gregory. Often the red dust that one finds on one’s car comes from as far south as the Sahara, but this certainly looks like pine pollen:

Red pollen

Red pollen

Red pollen

Red pollen

“You may recall that I mailed you in May about the phenomenon of a layer of dust which had settled on the paintwork of cars in this region (Great Yarmouth, Norfolk). I had made a slide of this and done a little research on the Internet. You replied saying that you would like to see a photo. Sorry it has taken such a long time to come back to you, I have only just got sorted out with my attachment for my digital camera. The photos show pollen grains, which is what a local radio station had said was the cause of the dust. Apparently it comes all the way from Scandinavia.”

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