Raining Oil In Louisiana? (VIDEO)

This shocking video shows what appears to be the aftermath of oily rain, filmed in River Ridge -- just outside New Orleans. The filmmaker captures the clearly visible sheen in the gathering puddles, and describes the remaining substance as "thick" and "foamy," noting that it not only looks but also smells like the oil they witnessed the day before on Gulf beaches from the spill.

According to Tampa Bay's 10Connects.com,

National Weather Service Science and Operations Officer Charlie Paxton says while it's always possible a water spout could pick up some oil and carry it a short distance, the notion of black rain is just not possible. Paxton says that's because oil does not evaporate. As a result, talk of black rain is just a myth.

Jalapnik.com mentions, however that "under normal environmental temperatures, oil does not evaporate, however with the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the effects of seawater emulsification and the introduction of BP's dispersant of choice, Corexit 9500, may be allowing some degree of evaporation into the water cycle."

WATCH Louisiana raining oil:

Quick Poll

Do you think it's raining oil?

Looks like oily rain to me!

I'm skeptical.

It's probably just dirty roads.

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Comments

[Slash14]

06:10 PM on 07/11/2010

Anything to protect BHO

[legalgirl]

11:06 PM on 07/08/2010

Last day to file your claim with BP is tomorrow, July 9th (80 days after 4/20/10 is what BP is saying). I hope for everyone's sake this video is a joke.

[Erin Kelly]

01:31 AM on 06/30/2010

Hmmm, with hurricane season upon us, it makes one wonder. However, I happen to know that a truck leaking oil was down the street. The "filmmaker" a.k.a. "unknown bubba" had his 2 minutes of fame! LOL.

[Slash14]

06:08 PM on 07/11/2010

wow that is a unfortunate way of thinking

[Erin Kelly]

11:34 PM on 07/11/2010

I'm giving you facts and you tell me "that is an unfortunate way of thinking". Please expound on your comment. It doesn't make sense.

[Jesse Ferrell]

03:37 PM on 06/29/2010

Bogus, I could do the same thing in my driveway after my car sits there for a couple of days leaking oil.

[Slash14]

06:14 PM on 07/11/2010

If your car is leaking oil maybe you should fix it. What would al gore say between massages

[StrategicThinker]

06:30 PM on 06/26/2010

Whether **THIS PARTICULAR** story is true or not, I expect the scenario to be true soon enough.

People would be unwise to JUDGE THE POTENTIAL for oily, dispersant-affected rain based on whether or not this video turns out to be true.

[Argent009]

12:58 AM on 06/28/2010

Dispersant affected rain isn't the same thing as oil rain. My complaint with this is that this video and all the attention it's getting by the media and people in general, draws attention away from the very real issues. So instead of people focusing on what the problems actually are, they're all looking for oily rain to fall from the skies because a yahoo on YouTube decided to pull a prank and got the world press to actually pay attention. Which is kind of typical of the media, I mean they wouldn't want to be caught dead actually reporting facts instead of reporting what looks like it might generate a bull*** storm for their ratings and advertising money. The problem here is the Corexit 9500, not "oil rain" and in this case, one mans attention seeking efforts. Those of us who have been on YouTube since the beginning know this guy, we know his characters, we know he does this kind of thing and why he does it. Now the world will get a chance to experience it thanks to yellow journalism like this.

[Slash14]

06:15 PM on 07/11/2010

so true strategic thinker

[Argent009]

04:06 AM on 06/26/2010

This story is a hoax, the person who uploaded this video is a known con artist who goes by many names, his real name is Casey Nunez, he's also known as The Drama Tube, Psycho Hurricane and many others. He has a long and sordid history of being one of the biggest trolls on YouTube. He will do anything to generate drama, including create this false claim. Please do NOT give attention to this scam artist and take it away from the real issues.

[maineman152]

11:01 PM on 06/25/2010

If it were raining any kind of oil or oil by product, there are many NWS stations in the Gulf Coast area that would be the first to observe it in their rain gauges and rain samples that they take on a regular basis.

That's not to say that these folks in the NO area did not observe some type of oil residue forming during a rainfall, it very well could be from the dispersant which does bond to water molecules and definitely could be transported through evaporation up into clouds and then fall with the formation of rain.

This is probably an isolated geographical incident but something that must be monitored carefully to see if it happens again, although if it does happen I do not know what can possibly be done about it.

There are going to be many unpleasant effects and side effects of this BP oil gusher disaster to be sure, years of them no doubt, it's only just begun I'm afraid.

[debu]

08:34 PM on 06/25/2010

Spilled some oil on my dad's driveway when I was a kid, what a catastrophe that was. Strange thing that soaked most of it up - Cat litter.

So, logically BP needs a supersonic cat litter canon.

[StrategicThinker]

06:32 PM on 06/26/2010

Quit trying to come up with "the one thing no one has thought of."

There are no solutions.

[Hannah Ihatethissignup]

10:43 AM on 08/20/2010

I'm pretty sure it was a joke.

[narfpaul]

01:08 PM on 06/25/2010

I think we are missing the forest for the trees. The only importance this video has is reminding us how poorly we execute our role as stewards of the Earth. Humanity's legacy will be that they didn't care enough about their legacy to preserve it.

[NWBrunette]

08:31 AM on 06/25/2010

Oh, the hurricanes are going to be fun this year.

[StrategicThinker]

06:35 PM on 06/26/2010

Yes, the hurricanes are going to cause the oil to mix with the water more by disturbing the water.

That should cause the oil to evaporate easier into the storm, which could lead to oily rain.

Regardless, the storm surge is gong to push oil further inland. Imagine those waves you saw during Hurricane Ike carrying oil with them.

By the way, did they ever fess up on how many people "ACTUALLY" died during Ike?

[MunyaBuddya]

03:42 AM on 06/25/2010

I live in New Orleans and can definitely say that it has been raining most days here lately, and I haven't noticed any oily sheen in the puddles at all. Still, hurricane season is not too far away and I wonder what effect, if any, we'll see from that should we get any major storms.

[Jackie Eco]

05:31 PM on 06/24/2010

I'm PERSONALLY investigating (with my limited time and resources) the use of the Corexit Dispersant. From what I understand, it's MORE toxic than the oil itself and can get into our DRINKING WATER resevoirs.

[mihoda]

05:50 PM on 06/24/2010

By what vector does this occur? Corexit is water soluble and neutrally bouyant. To translate, it mixes in and neither floats nor sinks. This guarantees that the Corexit will pretty much stay in the ocean forever, considering that the evaporation rate is so preposterously low compared to the billions of cubic km of ocean out there.

[Jackie Eco]

01:01 AM on 06/25/2010

A chemist posted this as well: Oil and Corexit complex may evaporate off as evaporation is a surface phenomenon and corexit has a specific gravity which is less then water as does oil. Though water would boil away quicker, but oil and corexit would not and may evaporate given the chemically attracted complex has specific densities less then water, especially for the VOC component of the oil.
Yes it may end up in the rain.

[EcoMetal]

05:01 PM on 06/24/2010

Whether this is truly oil from the spill or not, hurricane season is nearing and, due to our lack of respect for the ecosystem, it has the possibility of being just as bad as it has been in the last 10 years or so. Oil is likely going to end up covering a lot of land.

[Trueheart]

07:14 PM on 06/25/2010

Oil will be moving right along with the Gulf Stream. Say goodbye to oysters, clams, scallops, lobster who love along the shorelines, and big game fish who travel in the Stream. I'd say by the end of August, this crap will be surfacing in the Grand Banks.

[mihoda]

03:26 PM on 06/24/2010

Please. This is ridiculous rumor mongering and should not be presented as news.

Motor oil on road causes oily looking first rains all across the dry west at the beginning of every rainy season.

There is a piss easy test that can be performed to check this. But apparently the yokels that have been posting the videos don't have the intelligence to do this: set out a cup to fill with rain water. Does the cup have oil in it? Done.

I can do science, isn't it hard?

[nolafilm]

06:54 PM on 06/24/2010

THANK YOU! The poll is a joke as well - a classic example of using bias to make a point. This piece is nothing more than sensational garbage. It's irresponsible journalism at its worst. Please HuffPo, have the good sense to make an editorial comment here about how wrong you were to incite clueless people who so desperately want to believe there's some kind of cover-up.

If it really were raining oil in Louisiana, don't you think there'd be hundreds of videos of it online by now? From different parts of the state?

[Madbunny]

09:27 PM on 06/24/2010

I can haz science!

[interloper5]

02:51 PM on 06/24/2010

How do we Distill Crude oil if it doesn't evaporate?