You've all probably heard me whinge about the dust storms that we get here from time to time .. well, here's another one! lol

Yesterday it was fine in the morning, no wind but there was a little dust in the air and then in the afternoon the wind came up and the sky went orange from the dust. Okay, so we've seen that before.

But then. God, it was like Armegeddon. Another huge cloud of dust came in and the sky went black and it was really hard to breath. Was getting a bit scary.

HERE is a video someone put on youtube of it in Broken Hill.

And here and here are a couple photos I took before it got to bad.

I'll show some photos later of what the house looks like this morning! The worst thing is that it's due again on Friday .. so what's the point of cleaning up from this one???

http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2009/09/22/2693489.htm?site=brokenhill

here's another video from the ABC.

I know it's headed over the rest of NSW .. anyone else get it?

Maybe you can borrow some water from Georgia...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32952369/ns/weather/

Oh, My! I'd be scared half to death. How scary is that? And I though we had bad dust storms in Arizona. I can imagine how hard it must be to breathe. Take care!

Wow, that's amazing! I have a friend in Tibooburra (not too far from Broken Hill) who's told me of the orange dust and the storms there; I'd never imagined it anything like that though! That is freaky to be pitch black in the middle of the afternoon. I imagine it's terrible to be outside, hard to breathe.

Stay safe, Copago!

The sky is orange in Sydney this morning. At 5am, it looked like a monstrous fire!

Everyone is driving with headlights on, and there is a layer of dust over everything. Ferries and aeroplane landings have been cancelled, too.

We had a howling gale during the night, but thankfully that has dropped now.

All rather eerie- I have not seen a duststorm like this for many years.

ladymacb, that looks terrible too! Eek, I won't complain about the earthquakes we get on a regular basis, (the latest one I felt was just last week), as for the most part they don't do a lot of damage.

ozzz, isn't all that dust hard on vehicles' engines? Do people try not to drive during a dust storm? Or are you like the Canucks in winter snow blizzards, gotta do what you gotta do!

Ahhh Copago - Trangie copped it this morning - all orange and layers of dust on everything. Worst I've seen here. And I failed to shut a couple of windows last night so it's pretty grim inside.

Mags, I do not think it would adversely affect a car engine much, well, I hope not! That is what the air-cleaner is for.

But as you say, life has to go on, and I will be heading off to work later. (Bummer )

Wouldn't hurt to clean out the air cleaner though!

Did you take any snaps, Ozzz?

Trangie - I've a friend at Nyngan who said it hit there quite badly too. Have you started the clean up??

mags .. Tibooburra?? it's a long way from here but becuase there is'nt much in between it's sort of in the same region. Are you friends on a station?

Here's a few pics

my (green) car the tv LOL[/url]

a table top

verandah

my once green car

Certainly looks bad; in Libya we experienced a seasonal dust laden, strong wind called the qibli. Coming straight from the Sahara, it was hot, and invariably withered the leaves of outdoor plants. Fine dust found every gap in houses, cars, and clothing, and clearing up afterwards was a real pain.
I never saw the sky blacked out like this NSW wind, which looks much worse, and hopefully will be a rare occurrence.
For sure, if you must drive, then clean or replace your air filter often.
Also, give a thought to those who work in the electricity supply industry, where cleaning of equipment, and particularly insulators, is a massive task. The Libyans used large water cannons to clean high voltage substation equipment, which was both quick and effective.

Copago, that was a creepy video!
And the pic of your table looks similar to my bookshelves (but we don't get dust storms here).

I love extreme weather. One of the first things I noticed upon moving to Ohio was how flat it is and you can see a thunderstorm coming for miles and miles. Gets my adrenaline pumping. I will literally go window to window willing it to come my way.

I wouldn't even know where to start with that dusting! If it is due to happen again soon I would leave it until it is all over and do it then, I wouldn't want to finish clearing it only to have it happen again when it was finished.

I've been following the weather reports.
We're on holidays at Fingal Bay (Port Stephens) and it was certainly eerie at 6am, more yellow up here with the howling gale and while there Was dust (the clean white car is now 'red' in interesting patterns after being dusted today following last night's rain storm!)

The sun was an interesting glowing globe - I expected it to be a red ball, (as it was during bushfires) but it was more a blueish orb.

Storm reached as far as Brisbane after lunch apparently.

I hope it doesn't return Copargo - indicators are showing the system causing the problem will be pushed on. I hope so for all those in the 'dust line'.

The video clip was shown on CNN this morning, along with other images. I was amazed to see people still exercising, swimming, jogging, cycling, etc, almost immediately after the main storm had passed. Surely they could miss a day's exercise, or at least wear a dust mask!
edited to add: BBC TV this evening showed groups of 'fanatics' exercising during the storm, not even wearing masks - reckon they should be locked up for their own good

We've been having dust storms come through for a week or so now, nothing new here. The last couple of days have been the worst though, at least we know where all the our dirt is going.
Driving back from Adelaide we had to pull over a few times when visibility got to "we cant see anything" levels. Couldn't even see the poles on the side of the road!

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mags .. Tibooburra?? it's a long way from here but becuase there is'nt much in between it's sort of in the same region. Are you friends on a station?

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No, right in town, population 159 give or take a couple. It's claim to fame is that it's the hottest place in NSW in the summer, sweltering heat there.

I read a report about this current storm, apparently some areas yesterday were getting hailstones "the size of cricket balls". All I can say is I hope that all our FT Australian friends come out of this unscathed.

Having stayed both in Tibooburra and Broken Hill earlier this year, I'm sort of there in my mind imagining how awful it must be. I could barely cope with the outback atmosphere then (allergic reaction to mild amount of dust blowing around - constant streaming eyes), I certainly would not be outside like all these people are!

Some great images of the dust storm on Flickr

All clear here now - but my house is a disaster zone - I think I will be dusting for the next 2 years! I've started on the verandahs outside just to prevent walking more in! Not sure if that is even worth the effort as there is so much inside anway....someone did say to me yesterday that cleaning after a flood is worse - somehow I would welcome THAT opportunity!

I heard a report that there was over 75,000 TONS of dust over Sydney. Not sure how they measuered it, but that is about the weight of 3,000 fully loaded semi-trailers.

All the dust is on the way to New Zealand- hopefully it does not all fall at the same time- the whole country will sink!

The pictures I've seen recently of the red dust in the skies over Sydney have been incredible. Makes it look like Mars or something. We get the occasional mild dust storm blowing in from West Texas, but I've not seen anything quite that bad before.