Major dust storm blankets eastern Australia

WEATHER REPORT

This image released on the Nasa Earth Observatory website on September 24, 2009 shows a "photo-like" satellite image captured on September 23, 2009 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA�s Terra satellite over Australia of a wall of dust stretching from northern Queensland to the southern tip of eastern Australia. The worst dust storm in decades swept across eastern Australia on September 23, 2009, blanketing Sydney and snarling transport as freak conditions also brought earthquakes, giant hailstones and even a tornado. Photo courtesy AFP.

Freak dust storm cost Australia 'tens of millions'
Australia cleared up on Thursday after the worst dust storm in decades which smothered Sydney and cost an estimated tens of millions of dollars in lost productivity. Residents cleaned grimy cars and windows under clear skies a day after millions of tonnes of dust blew in from the desert Outback, forming an eerie red dawn in Sydney and caking the city in orange powder. Health experts said the danger from record air pollution had passed but industry groups pointed to heavy economic damage in lost working hours and precious agricultural topsoil.

The dust storm forced the closure of Sydney construction sites and played havoc with air travel, with international flight diversions causing long delays. "I think it's tens of millions of dollars," said Mark Goodsell from the Australian Industry Group, referring to economic losses. The airport delays "would cost millions and much of the building industry shut down for the day - that's expensive. Then there's absenteeism and lost revenue in hospitality. "There's also a big clean-up. Everybody's got to clean their houses, including people like me who left their windows open."

The storm reportedly dumped millions of tonnes of dust over New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, before heading north to Queensland in a plume which stretched 1,500 kilometres (932 miles) long and 400 kilometres wide. Strong winds following the hottest August on record sucked up dust from a decade-long drought in what experts said was the biggest such incident to hit Sydney since 1942. Weather bureau official Mike De Salis said eastern Australia was probably set for more dusty days in the coming weeks, but nothing on this scale. "It was very unusual," he told national news agency AAP. "There is a chance, a good chance of hazy days, of dust haze with visibility around four or five kilometres." Newspaper front pages showed pictures of Sydney bathed in an unearthly red glow and reflected on bizarre scenes which sent commuters scurrying to work in surgical face-masks.

"Doomsday," said the Daily Telegraph, while the Sydney Morning Herald called it, "The day the country blew into town." "It wasn't, as the saying goes, a good laundry day," a Telegraph editorial said. "Sydney's great dust storm of 2009 will take its place alongside other long-remembered weather events, including the massive ice storm of 1999 and a wind storm in 1991 that caused 670 million dollars (587 million US) in damage." The freak weather, which also rained large hailstones over New South Wales and formed a mini-tornado near Canberra, coincided with a pair of minor earthquakes in Victoria and 21 bush fires in Queensland.

by Staff Writers
Sydney (AFP) Sept 23, 2009
The worst dust storm in decades swept across eastern Australia on Wednesday, blanketing Sydney and snarling transport as freak conditions also brought earthquakes, giant hailstones and even a tornado.

Gale-force winds dumped thousands of tonnes of red desert dust on Australia's biggest city, shrouding it in an eerie orange haze and coating the iconic Sydney Opera House in a fine layer of powder.

The storm, reportedly the most serious since the 1940s, then spread 600 kilometres (375 miles) up the coast to Queensland and could even hit New Zealand, some 4,000 kilometres away, experts said.

Dust covered most of New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, pushing air pollution to record levels and depositing about 75,000 tonnes of powder in the Tasman Sea every hour.

"Dust storms like this occur quite regularly but they rarely travel this far east and come through Sydney," said John Leys, principal research scientist with New South Wales' Department of Climate Change and Water.

Sydney residents wore face masks and covered their mouths with scarves as they travelled to work under hazy skies. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper on major highways.

Air transport was severely disrupted with passengers facing long delays at Sydney airport and many international flights diverted to Melbourne and Brisbane.

Flag-carrier Qantas urged passengers to cancel any non-urgent travel, while budget offshoot Jetstar offered free flight rescheduling and refunds.

"We encourage any passengers with non-essential travel arrangements to reconsider their travel plans for the day," Qantas said in a statement.

Sydney Ferries suspended harbour services and police warned drivers to take extra care in poor visibility. Ambulance workers reported a sudden spike in respiratory problems.

"We have already seen an increase in calls to people suffering from asthma and other respiratory problems," New South Wales Ambulance Service said in a statement.

Australia, in the grip of a decade-long drought, is emerging from an abnormally hot southern hemisphere winter including the hottest August on record.

Elsewhere in New South Wales, hail stones "the size of cricket balls" smashed windows as thunderstorms and gale-force winds lashed the state late on Tuesday.

"We've had reports of cars with both their front and rear windscreens smashed," an official from the State Emergency Service said.

Further north, Queensland imposed a ban on lighting fires across large parts of the state a day after a dozen bush blazes sprang up following a spell of hot, dry weather.

Tough water restrictions there are to be temporarily set aside to allow people to wash dust off their cars, homes and business premises, the Australian AAP news agency reported.

"This has been an extraordinary event with many parts of the region now caked in dust," Queensland Water Commission acting chief executive Daniel Spiller was quoted by the agency as saying.

Victoria state was on alert for flash floods as heavy rains fell, following a pair of minor earthquakes on Tuesday. The 3.0- and 2.6-magnitude tremors did not cause any damage, officials said.

Police in southwestern New South Wales, bordering Victoria, reported bizarre conditions on Tuesday as dark red skies thick with dust cut visibility to just two to three metres in some areas.

"I've never seen anything like it in all my life -- and I grew up here," a police officer at the town of Broken Hill told AAP.

"It was darker than night-time, and lasted for about half an hour. You couldn't even see the street lights."

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us Digg Reddit

YahooMyWeb Google Facebook

Related Links
Weather News at TerraDaily.com

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

WEATHER REPORT

Dust, quakes and fire as Australia reels from wild weather
Sydney (AFP) Sept 23, 2009
Australia's biggest city was shrouded in an eerie blanket of red dust on Wednesday as bushfires, earthquakes, wild winds and massive hail stones caused havoc in the country. Sydney's cars and buildings turned orange as strong winds blew desert dust across the city, snarling commuter and air transport and prompting a warning for children and the elderly to stay indoors. Residents wore ... read more

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2009 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement