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Dust storms in Australia

PostPosted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:54 am
by Alpinist
What the hell is happening in the land down under?

Dust storms were reported Wednesday along Australia's heavily populated eastern coast, from Ulladulla, south of Sydney, to Brisbane, about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) north. Other areas in the southeast were hit earlier this week.

The storms — visible as a huge brown smudge in satellite photographs of Australia on Wednesday — are the most severe since the 1940s, experts said.


Full story.

Image

PostPosted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:18 pm
by surgent
Amazing photo! Yikes.

Duststorms are business-as-usual down there. Given the generally flat topography, dry weather, and a gigantic dusty desert interior, they happen all the time. Some years worse than others. I lived in Canberra in the late 1980s and although we didn't get hit (probably too hilly where we were), everyone talked about the big ones from the early 1980s during the El Nino year (82/83, I think). Kind of like people in Texas boasting of surviving a big twister, Floridians of surviving a hurricane, or San Diegans of surviving a day when the temperatures reached into the low 90s F.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 10:56 am
by dadndave
Business as usual, my arse.

This was the worst dust storm in recorded history in this part of the world.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:50 pm
by dadndave
Got another one last night just after dark.

We'd just cleaned up after Wednesday's one and now we have to do it again. I'll have to get up on the roof and clean the solar hot water panels and the photovoltaic array. Just as well I hadn't got around to doing that after wednesday's storm or I'd be doing that for the second time too.

Yeah it was pretty bad on Wednesday. Visibility got down to about 200 metres. Cars and house covered in brown dust.

PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 7:43 pm
by Alpinist
How are things in Sydney now since the dust storms? I'll be out there the week of Nov 8th. Are there any lingering issues that I should know before arriving?

PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 11:41 am
by Mountain Bandit
Dust storms?????? Thats old news now and its buisness as usual. People have put all their cars through the wash and all the city building's window cleaners have been through.

Yep, dust storms are a way of life here in Oz (only in some parts though). Growing up in Central Australia, we had storms like these every year. Its just rare to get them on our east coast, especially in populated cities such as Sydney and Brisbane.

This clip shows the begining of this particular dust storm brewing in western NSW. Watch until the end as they drive into the storm - its NOT a fake but yes its hard to believe.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95tmYmeHf84&feature=player_embedded


Welcome to our Great Southern Land!

PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:49 pm
by Alpinist
Wow! That is an awesome video. I'm glad to hear that everything is back to normal. Thanks for the update.