Wednesday morning 23rd of September 2009 will be remembered for a long time in Sydney. It was the day we woke up to blood in the sky and dust in our mouths. Can't make out the first photo? It was what I saw at 6.15 or so that morning. For contrast, the second photo was taken around the same time on Saturday (this) morning. Still strange, other worldly, but with the red leached out. The third photo was taken around three hours later this morning. You can see a horizon, the other side of Botany Bay. You can even see a container ship approaching the docks on the far right if you look hard. The sky is once again blue-ish.Another dust storm today. I could not remember a dust storm in Sydney, though I did spend more than ten years out of the country. The papers vindicated my memories: although weather bureau records show that dust storms have swept Sydney before, in 1994 I was out of the country; in '68 I don't know what I was doing, but I don't remember it; in '57 I was too young to remember anything and in '42 I wasn't even a twinkle in my father's eye.
The dust which blew over Sydney was estimated to weigh one quarter of the weight of Uluru, that Australian icon situated in the centre of the continent. The origin of the dust which still blankets Sydney was the area around the salt lakes of South Australia (about 1,500 kilometres away) and northern NSW. (These areas have been in drought for eight years.) A couple of weeks ago, scientists were studying this very dust on the snow of Mt Hutt in New Zealand.
Sometime this week I will take a photo at the same time of day as the first and second above to demonstrate the difference between what I see every morning and what I saw on Wednesday.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b35d3806-bc9f-4aef-a5af-c1c64d6cc99d)
I was wondering if you might have seen this. If the dust was from around salt lakes would that have been unproductive land or would it have been agricutural soil, if so it looks as if a lot of it is gone now. Nature can change things fast when it wants too and on a huge scale of course, and an eight year drought must be bad for the stability of the soil.
ReplyDeleteAlthough dust storms in Sydney are uncommon I wonder if the frequency of these storms has increased or altered in Australia.
The red coloured sky appears alien or apocalyptic, it must have been an alarming and unexpected sight to say the least.
Yes, john, quite a shock. Normally a yellow light seeps in through windows & the glass of the front door at dawn, but Wednesday morning it was that ghastly shade.
ReplyDeleteActually, I should have said that the storm, not the dust, originated from the area around the salt lakes of South Australia. The dust was actually the top soil of farming land in New South Wales. And according to John Leys, a sientist with the Department of Environment and Climate Change, NSW is experiencing 10 times the normal number of dust storms. Over the last two months, he says, NSW has experienced a major dust storm every week.
(I had never heard of this before. When I thought dust storm, I thought "The Grapes of Wrath"--Oklahoma, not Australia. But I am a city resident, as are most of the Australian population. I've been well aware of drought, though, ever since I became aware of the media: cracked earth always makes a dramatic front page photo. Rainfall measured in the area where Queensland, South Australia and NSW meet (way out north-west of Sydney) is in the lowest 10% ever recorded, according to Barry Hanstrum the NSW regional director of the weather bureau.
I saw some pictures of this dust storm on the news, and I can only say eerie, surreal.
ReplyDeleteTalk about a shift in the norm!
Has the storm ended now?
Or is another one in the making?
It must have been hard to breath outdoors?
Yes, Penny, I couldn't remember having seen anything like it before. The storms are over now, at least in Sydney. And it was hard to breathe outdoors. The state government suggested that children, the elderly and those with breathing difficulties stay indoors.
ReplyDeleteI've seen a few changes in the weather in the local area during my lifetime. I've lived in this area most of my life. When I was a kid and lived a couple of kilometres down the road, the water would freeze in the hose on the coldest winter nights. Not now.
As I said, I was unaware of any earlier dust storms in Sydney. And I had never experienced a 45C degree day. I have experienced both these things in the last few years.
That really does sound like a big change a huge increase in the frequency of the dust storms. Thanks for all the information qotn. it is much appreciated.
ReplyDelete45 degree celsius day, yikes!!
ReplyDeletemakes one think of that saying
that is 'hotter then hades'