RENO, Nev. (AP) – Thick haze could be seen late last week and over the weekend over northern Nevada and the Tahoe-Truckee area, and its source was thousands of miles away.

Kelly Redmond of the Western Regional Climate Center said the haze started as a massive dust storm in the vast Gobi Desert that straddles the China-Mongolia border.

The storm lofted clouds of dust perhaps as high as 20,000 feet and into the jetstream for a trip across the Pacific Ocean.

“It’s very fine dust in order for it to get this far,” Redmond said.

Normally, the dust would have been washed into the sea upon encountering rain clouds, Redmond said.

But on the week-long journey from the Gobi Desert to America, the stuff stayed high and dry.

Such dust clouds aren’t unique as Redmond said similar conditions brought haze to Nevada from Asia in April 1998.

Jacques Etchegoyhen of Minden, Nev., was surprised to learn of the haze’s origin.

“It tells you we’re all on one planet,” he said. “What happens in one area can affect things a long way away.”