Red dust dawn

[Tale]

Last night, 1000km to the west, this happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrlD22HwPvI

This morning at 6am in my Sydney apartment, I woke up choking on red dust that was blowing in. Closing the windows, the world outside looked like Mars. Comparison shot from someone else's front door:



Good photo gallery: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/photogallery/index/id/album-1182

Far south in the Snowy Mountains, it's snowing red: http://www.perisher.com.au/winter/snowreport/v_eight.php

Might even make the news in other countries.

[Chimpy]

That is eerie. Looks like something out of Mad Max.

That must have been one hell of a storm to blow that much dust out from the desert to the coast.

[lamaros]

Wish I had been in Sydney to see this.

[Tale]

Chris Eiser, manager of atmospheric science at the department, said measurements taken in Sydney on Wednesday showed the highest level of particle concentration on record.

A normal day would see around 10 micrograms of particles per cubic metre of air and a bushfire might generate 500 micrograms.

On Wednesday, levels soared to 15,400 micrograms per cubic metre of air at one location.

Dr John Leys, principal research scientist with the NSW Department of Climate Change and Water, said initial estimates showed the dust plume stretched 600km along the NSW coast from Sydney to the Queensland border on Wednesday morning, dumping up to 75,000 tonnes of dust per hour into the Tasman Sea.

Hey China, there goes your iron ore.

[Trippy]

It's okay, millions of tons of dust blow through Beijing and northern China and adjacent regions every year now thanks to the desertification and deforestation in that region so they don't need anymore, thank you very much.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7274718.stm

[schild]

I made a joke about the whole of China evaporating, so, kinda funny this thread went that way.

[Fordel]

Quick, someone link this to a doomsday prophecy!

[Tale]

[Fordel]

Perfect!




Do these storms happen often and this one was just unusually thick, or was this just some totally random thing that freaked everyone out?

I'd probably be freaked out by it if I woke up to that.

[Tale]

Do these storms happen often and this one was just unusually thick, or was this just some totally random thing that freaked everyone out?

It was just some totally random thing that freaked everyone out. There were lesser ones in 2002 and the 1960s, and an Armageddon-looking one hit Melbourne in 1983. Today's was the biggest ever recorded.

I saw it drawn north-south on a TV map and it stretched from northern Queensland to southern New South Wales, which is about as long north-south as the 48 contiguous US states.

[Yegolev]

Want some water?

[Cyrrex]

Wow, that's seriously amazing.  If that happened in the US, can you imagine how some people would react?

[Ironwood]

They'd blame socialism ?

 

[Cyrrex]

No, communism, dumbass.  Communism is red.  Socialism is probably pink or something.

[Lantyssa]

Trick question.  Americans think they're the same thing.

[Brogarn]

Is the American bashing truly necessary outside of Politics? There's a reason I started avoiding that place...

But awesome pictures, either way. I don't care who you are, you wake up to the skies being red, you're going to be a bit freaked out by it.

[Teleku]

Wow, that's seriously amazing.  If that happened in the US, can you imagine how some people would react?

Several years back in San Diego, the city got surrounded on all sides by major forest fires, and the winds shifted to blow all the smoke into the city.  We all woke up to scenes that looked like this:


It looked like this for 4 days straight.  As a bonus, it constantly rained ash the entire time.

[IainC]

When I lived in Peterborough, East Anglia there were a couple of summers where all the cars got completely coated with red dust that had blown over from the Sahara. I don't remember orange haze and apocalyptic skyscapes but dust can travel a long way even without freak weather conditions.

[lamaros]

Not sure if this link will work, but:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=141884236159

[schild]

Ok that's fucking madness.

[lamaros]

A nice aussie accent going on in the video too!

[Tale]

Not sure if this link will work, but:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=141884236159

Apparently that one is old, from out in the actual desert in 2007. Here's the YouTube version with the original dates on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95tmYmeHf84

It would have looked pretty similar this time around though.

[lamaros]

Not sure if this link will work, but:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=141884236159

Apparently that one is old, from out in the actual desert in 2007. Here's the YouTube version with the original dates on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95tmYmeHf84

It would have looked pretty similar this time around though.

Ah.

[HaemishM]

Not sure if this link will work, but:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=141884236159

HOLY FUCKING ASS CRACKERS!

[Nerf]

While not quite as apocalyptic, on the drive back to Arlington from Amarillo we had to drive through a dozen or so walls of dust.  It was creepy coming up on them, blue skies, everything clear, and a mile ahead you just see a wall of brown dust from the ground to the sky.  Driving into them visibility went from miles to about 20 feet, and most of them seemed 1/4 mile long or so.  Fun times!   

[Tale]

LOL the weather forecast for today is "Windy. Possible morning dust." Dust has never been in our weather forecasts before. Apparently there is another dust storm coming, but probably not as big.

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDN10064.shtml

[Tale]

Woke up in the morning and it really is back. Not as thick as last time - the air was rusty brown at sunrise, not red. It's in my mouth and up my nose again, just lying in bed. I laugh at the people who spent the last few days cleaning the dust from their cars/homes/workplaces.

[Cyrrex]

Why is Australia attacking its people again?  Between all the crazy wildlife you have there, and these plagues-from-hell dust storms all over the place, it's as if the country is trying to get rid of all of you.

[Sir T]

Would you like to be a country filled with Austrailians? 

[Cyrrex]

Would you like to be a country filled with Austrailians? 

Pssh...by that logic, the whole southern portion of the US would be getting constantly hit by massive life ending storms all the time, and we know that isn't the case.

[NowhereMan]

That's because they're new countries full of unpleasant people. After a few centuries they'll settle down and resign themselves to depression and constant cold and rain. Just look at Scotland

[Tale]

Dust is back! Not thick like September, but it's visibly in the air again and coating everything it touches. Another vast dust cloud, hundreds of miles long and wide.

It's certainly a changed part of our weather, whether or not it's actual climate change. I've lived here since 1979 and have never seen this before. Now it's happened three times in three months. Nobody can keep their car clean anymore.

[rattran]

You should buy a red car.

[Signe]

Poor old Tale.  Well, the good thing is that the pressure to keep your car clean is off!  No one know who the slob is anymore.

[Azazel]

Do these storms happen often and this one was just unusually thick, or was this just some totally random thing that freaked everyone out?

It was just some totally random thing that freaked everyone out. There were lesser ones in 2002 and the 1960s, and an Armageddon-looking one hit Melbourne in 1983. Today's was the biggest ever recorded.

I remember the one in Melbourne. Back when I was in primary school.