Talk about a red sky in the morning. Sydney woke up to what might be its first-ever dust storm this morning. This is how things looked about 15 minutes after sunrise. Instead of the white-yellow glare of a low sun, everything looked deep red, like we were on Mars.
Eeerie is the only word to describe the feeling of waking up with all your windows glowing red. Our breakfast radio announcer ventured 'spooky' as well as 'eerie', and no-one would disagree. And he's playing songs by Dusty Springfield, Slim Dusty, etc. Nice touch!
About five minutes later the light brightened slightly, and this is the scene on the street. The dust has been blown here by fierce, strong winds emanating from the centre of the continent, and the winds here are howling this morning. The weather bureau says to expect gusts of 100km/h (60mph).
Looking the other way down the street and it's just like when it's foggy, except that it's red. The street lamps are glowing, and as cars drive by their headlights send out pinky red beams in advance.
Looking from the back of the garden to the house, and the southern sky, and my lungs are hurting. I suffer from mild asthma, and even five minutes out in that stuff and I'm short of breath. So, for me, it's inside to blog about it all, use the puffer and stay away from the dust. You can taste it in your mouth, and it's unpleasant.Well, here at the Garden Amateur blog I am sure some readers must get sick of me blathering on about the beautiful Sydney climate, but today it's deadly. Be glad you're not here! Strong winds all day, lung-damaging dust choking everyone, traffic chaos everywhere, and if those gales work up, I am sure some beautiful plants and trees will be blown down. I'm not really sure if this is Sydney's first dust storm, but I've been here 55 years and it's my first one. And that concludes the weather report from Mars, Australia.
15 comments:
Jamie,
Thank you for your comment, I will look out for garden festivals, I do love the one in Bilpin, though they don't really have succulents.
Life on Mars it was! I was lucky to catch the red like you at daybreak. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures so I'm very glad you did. We thought it was War of the Worlds!
I'm sure that must be spooky for someone experiencing it all. But for me, sitting in India and seeing those pictures - the photographs are terrific.
I hope this gets over soon for you. Take care!
We (4 hours west of Sydney) had the dust yesterday a little earlier than you did but it seemed mostly at high altitude.
At the time we had no strong winds and the clouds were tinged a slight rusty brown.
There was some low level dust though because I could feel it in my throat.
It seemed to clear up about mid afternoon and then we had some heavy rain mixed with hail. At the time I was grateful that the dust had cleared before the rain came - last year we had a dust storm mixed with rain and the whole town was decorated with muddy streaks.
But my gratitude was reduced slightly when I saw my car this morning and found it hadn't escaped. It looks like I'll need to wash it again on the weekend - a task I usually delay as long as possible with the excuse of conserving water.
That's eerie indeed.... We may have half of that red sky when dry and hot spell is overstretched a little longer than usual. ~bangchik
I felt the same way...woke up and saw the red and wondered if we were on fire or if there was some climate change apocolypse. Luckily it cleared in the afternoon.
Your dust storm featured on our national news here in the Uk - it looked horrid and they said that somewhere hear you it had rained mud!!!! Must be surreal
Didn't think I was the only Sydney blogger to post today!
That's seriously crazy, I read about it on the BBC website earlier!
I can't blame you for staying in the house - I think I would too!
Jamie~~ How's this for uncanny: Seconds before I clicked on your blog, a news report about your dust storm was aired. The TV footage was exactly as red as your photos. Just looking at them makes me short of breath. I hope it passes quickly. We're getting a comparatively minute flyover of wildfire smoke. The sun was red yesterday morning. Cool, but ominous. This morning there was ash on my car.
That's slightly scary, Jamie. I would've thought the sun was falling on me! (Yeah I think I have some Chicken Little tendencies)
Do they know why it happened ?
Hi Jamie,
I just read your post after posting similar Sydney pics of the dust storm yesterday morning. Your title is a bit more imaginative - mine was 'dust storm in Sydney'. Incredible wasn't it? So nice to be breathing clearer air today!
Lanie.
That is eerie looking. I wouldn't want to be breathing that, even without the excuse of asthma. Those are some great photos though. I hope the weird weather passes soon and you get back to your usual beautiful weather.
My wife has just spoken to her parents in far west NSW and they are currently going through another dust storm (4pm 215/9; so we are preparing for more airborn dirt perhaps this evening.
Thanks for that Onesimus. I'm going out tonight and won't be home till late, so I'm taking my dust mask and asthma puffer with me just in case the dust hits town a bit early. It wasn't much fun the other day.
Dear jamie,
Very nice when i saw your blog...
why, you not joint with google adsense..
I think is good to monetizing your blog with Google adsense...
andy
Post a Comment