Unique Dust Storm

[Chantelle]

Here's an image taken out my back door of my house in NSW. Huge winds last night brought orange dust from the west to the east coast of Australia. This is on the Central Coast, north of Sydney, Sydney has been hit even worse then you see here. Everything has been delayed, planes, ferries, etc. I have never seen anything like this before.

And this image isn't colourised (the colour is exactly what it is outside my house).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2421/3945056763_14a2212fcd_o.jpg

[tomorrowstreasures]

WOW! :eek: What a mess that is going to be to clean up!

[Chantelle]

Yep, I'm staying inside for a while. My asthma might chuck a fit if I go out there.

[JAS_Photo]

THat is weird. The only thing similar I can think of is when Mt. St. Helen's blew. I was living in Lethbridge at the time and everything was covered in a fine white dust. It blew in like a big snow storm turning everything white..

[Mad Aussie]

The winds have just hit up here in Brissy too and the sky is starting to dust up. They say it won't be as bad up here as Sydney way though thankfully.

This isn't a rare occurance though ... we get these dust storms from time to time. This one in the Sydney region is particularly bad though.

Here you see a gallery of images people have today this morning of the dust storm ... http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5060682-5007150,00.html#

[Michaelaw]

Wondering about the color? Sand perhaps?

[Chantelle]

I think its the red dirt from the desert that is making it that colour. it was a lot redder earlier this morning. starting to clear up now, its not as orange, more brownys-dirty look. Winds are still very very high.

[Mad Aussie]

That's right ... it's from high winds over the inland deserts. It takes the right conditions to cause this but they do happen every couple of years somewhere in the country. Millions of tons of desert sand and dirt are sent out to sea. It's not as bad as it looks usually though. A quick car wash and things return to normal again afterwards.

Here in Brissy it's hit now also and it's a bland yellowish colouring here. As they said ... not as bad as Sydney copped.

[Chantelle]

yer thats no where near as what Sydney got! I had a look at those images you put a link to. incredible.

[Mad Aussie]

I think this one is the closest in colour to what we are seeing outside right now http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5060682-5007150-39,00.html

[Michaelaw]

So it's normal for you guys to get these storms?

[Mad Aussie]

So it's normal for you guys to get these storms?
Well yes ... and no. We might get a couple a year or none for several years here in Brissy. Usually though I think somewhere in this vast country a dust storm hits a city every year or so.

[Chantelle]

oh ok, yea light orange-yellow colour.

[corporallouis]

This even made the Provincial news way up here. This stuff must wreak havoc on any air filters. Should make for some spectacular sunsets as soon as it clears off.

[AcadieLibre]

Love the colour in the photo, I have seen many from the dust storm there and that is as good as any I have seen. Would be nice to photograph but must be horrid to clean up after one so massive passes through.

[Mad Aussie]

The dust storm was gone by morning. We woke to a beautiful, cloudless, blue sky and no wind.

On the news last night they warned us they are predicting a 2nd dust storm to hit over the weekend.

[Xenos]

Cool picture. I saw this on the news here in BC last night. A friend of mine is in Sydney right now for a vacation. He is super paranoid about things and believe it or not, he brings dust masks on every vacation, finally, he isn't going to be looked at as weird...

[Mad Aussie]

Cool picture. I saw this on the news here in BC last night. A friend of mine is in Sydney right now for a vacation. He is super paranoid about things and believe it or not, he brings dust masks on every vacation, finally, he isn't going to be looked at as weird...
We'll probably find other reasons to find him weird ;)

[Mad Aussie]

The dust storms returned yesterday. Now THAT's unusual. Never seen two in the same week before. Barely remember two in a season.

Sydney copped it during the day and we got it as dusk fell. Lying in bed last night listening to 60 kph winds we could taste the dust in the air even though the house is completely shut up and only 4 or 5 years old.

No sign of it in the house thankfully but the old Camry is going to need it's second wash this week thanks to these dust storms.

[Chantelle]

Yea, we've got dust in our house, I spent yesterday morning sweeping it up and getting rid of it, even then, we could still smell it in the air, I was sneezing alot. Thankfully the second dust storm was no where near as bad as the first, and it cleared quickly, ours was gone by 11am.