K
Katala
Deleted Due to Inactivity
Former MSFC Member
A huge outback dust storm swept across eastern Australia today, leaving most of New South Wales, including Sydney shrouded in a thick red cloud of dust.
Flights were diverted and Sydney's iconic ferries were suspended as city dwellers woke to deep red skies with visibility down to a few feet, and thick dust coating cars, buildings and beaches.
The emergency services were inundated with calls from people fearing a major bushfire in the city while dust particles triggered scores of fire alarms and, in one Sydney train station, an emergency evacuation.
Further inland, the swirling dust blacked out the outback mining town of Broken Hill, forcing one mine to shut down.
n intense low pressure system sweeping NSW from central Australia brought wild winds that whipped up the dust from the state's parched inland areas, spreading it over the entire state.
The extraordinary weather conditions also fanned several bushfires across NSW.
"This is unprecedented. We are seeing earth, wind and fire together," said **** Whitaker from the Weather Channel.
The blanket of dust stretched hundreds of miles along the coast and inland from Sydney, coating towns as far apart as Newcastle in the north and Canberra in the south.
Barry Hanstrum, regional director of the Bureau of Meteorology said the cloud could reach New Zealand, 1200 miles east of Sydney.
"There's a fair chance that it will keep going out into the Tasman Sea and it won't dissipate quickly,'' he said.
"They may see some effects of reduced visibility as far east as New Zealand.''
“An event like this is extremely rare,†Mr Hanstrum said. “It's one of the worst, if not the worst.â€
Callers to ABC radio likened the scenes to the end of the world.
A housewife from Sydney's inner west said she woke up to find the red dust had covered her floors and birds had been blown out of their nests.
"It did feel like Armageddon because when I was in the kitchen looking out the skylight there was this red, red glow coming through," she told the ABC.
Inland, as rainstorms swept in, the rain fell as mud over cars and houses. One caller told local radio; "I have a green car and it's now an orange car. The wipers are barely able to cope with all the mud."
Dust storms are not uncommon in Australia, but for the most part are restricted to the drier inland areas. However during widespread drought, they can affect coastal districts when high winds whip up the loosened topsoil from the outback and carry it over the country.
One of the most spectacular storms occurred in Melbourne in 1983 when a dust storm that extended across the entire width of Victoria covered the city with a 20 mile (320 m) deep cloud of dust.
It was estimated at the time that 1000 tonnes of topsoil that had been stripped from inland Victoria was dumped on the city in just a few hours.
In a day of wild weather across Australia today, hailstones as big as cricket balls slammed into the town of Crookwell near Goulburn, in NSW damaging windows and tiles.
And just to complete the mayhem, two small earthquakes measuring 3.0 and 2.6 on the Richter scale rattled Melbourne, although there were no reports of damage.
HEALTH authorities are warning people who suffer from breathing difficulties to stay inside as a massive dust storm covers much of NSW.
NSW woke to a blanket of thick red dust shrouding the city along with strong winds prompting warnings from paramedics and the health department.
The rare weather conditions have forced asthma sufferers and people suffering other respiratory illnesses indoors.
Pregnant women, children and the elderly have been urged to prevent dust entering their lungs.
The NSW Ambulance Service issued a warning to people suffering from asthma or other respiratory illnesses to stay inside where possible and keep all medication on hand.
"We have already seen an increase in calls to people suffering from asthma and other respiratory problems," the Ambulance Service said in a statement.
"People with asthma in particular need to be aware of early warning signs especially if their condition does not respond to their usual medication.
"If your asthma does not respond quickly to your normal medication call 000 to get help immediately."
He said the unusually high level of dust in the atmosphere could cause irritation to airways and make a respiratory condition worse.
NSW Director of Environmental Health Wayne Smith said the conditions were "very poor" for people with asthma or any form of heart or lung disease.
"Keeping yourself indoors today is the main thing to do if you have any of those conditions and particularly if you have those conditions and you're a known sensitive sufferer such as children, older adults or pregnant women."
"It's well known that these sort of conditions exacerbate asthma and exacerbate symptoms for people with heart disease or lung disease."
He advised people to keep windows and doors closed and also said people should avoid any outdoor exercise.
"If you have asthma make sure you have your relievers close by and if your symptoms persist you should seek medical help as soon as possible."
These are just some of the news reports popping up on the web.
This morning Majestic and I woke up at 6am and saw what appeared to be fog on the horizon, at 7am we got up when the alarm went off and found a red sky, my first thought was *is this the end of the world? are we going to die now?* it is not the best thing to wake upto first thing in the morning, we are also recieving high escalating winds of upto 100km/h in some places which is spreading the red dust and making it seep into our homes causing breathing problems for those with asthma *such as my daughter* and giving everything a red/orange tinge and we have the taste and smell of dust everywhere.
Here are a few of the pics I took this morning at 7am from the front of our house onto the highway *included are a few from around the state*:
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