Hyde Park, Sydney - about 5:50amWell, I woke up this morning and thought I'd astro-travelled to Mars overnight. Gusty winds blanketed Sydney with red dust from some faraway desert locale. Even the inside of my train was coated in dust. I got to work a little late after taking a few photos of the phenomenon. You can see more piccies on my photo gallery.
The Sydney Morning Herald said: "It may look like Doomsday, but the causes of today's storm are relatively prosaic.
"Tiny particles lifted from the desert in South Australia are wafted high into the air and carried east. The ruddy haze is caused by sunlight refracting through iron-rich dust.
"If it were possible to scrape the film of dust coating outdoor surfaces across Sydney together into a heap, it would probably weigh something like 1,000 tonnes."
The war memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney
3 comments:
Great photos, Authorness. We had that red dust up on the Mid Nth Coast too. A baby noisy minor was blown out of his nest and was hanging onto our gutter by his little yellow beak.
My hubby climbed on the roof to retrieve the nest and we put him back in and placed him on the veranda. His parents came and fed him, but we brought him in at night until the storms had stopped. Then I placed him in the nest and put it in a tree. He stayed there until a few days ago when he landed on our veranda to use the birdbath with his mum. We had many reports of birds blown out of trees that day.
That orange dust is so hard to get rid of. The sky looked so weird at dawn. I wish I had taken photos early. I did get pictures of the bird though, and a film too.
Oh, that poor little bird, Trish! I'm glad you and hubby were there to save him.
It sure was an eerie day. I can still see red dust in pavement cracks around here, not to mention all over my house!
Yes, the red dust around here has been turned into red sludge by the light rain. We need a storm to wash it away.
It felt like being on another planet.
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