Dust-Storms across Eastern Australia

[opinionated ow]

You have to see this to believe it! Very strong winds whip up the dirt from inland desert and drought affected inland areas and dump it on the east coast.
http://photos-h-2.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs244.snc1/9122_167170111257_7174646257_3646743_1730779_n.jpg
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/img/2009/slideshow/dust/duststorm10.jpg
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/img/2009/slideshow/dust/dustnewscastle3.jpg
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http://news.ninemsn.com.au/slideshow_ajax.aspx?sectionid=9016&sectionname=slideshowajax&subsectionid=155654&subsectionname=duststorm
http://realtime2.bsch.au.com/vis_sat2.html?region=seaus&loop=yes&images=10&allday=&start=&stop=

[Kiwifan]

We had dust over NZ last week and they reckon it came from Aus. :eek:

Had the signs of smoke from the bushfires before but not the dust.

Take care buddy.

[opinionated ow]

We had dust over NZ last week and they reckon it came from Aus. :eek:

Had the signs of smoke from the bushfires before but not the dust.

Take care buddy.

All clear now, we may get another smaller one in a day or two. But it seems that your about to benefit from the dust.

[Kiwifan]

They reckon we should see it by weeks end. Just finished watching SKYNews Aus, keep ya trap shut Aussies! :) :) I guess it's one way to shut you up. ;)

Not too good for the farmers in the Outback, haven't they been whacked enough?

Rusty.

[emjaya]

Think of it this way, Rusty; no need for you to go see South Australia, it's coming to to see you. :)

[dando]

:eek: That's just insane. Looks like a scene from Star Wars or Mad Max. I wonder what the satellite images of this look like.

EDIT: Answered my own question:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/09/23/article-1215443-068C6E3C000005DC-771_964x619.jpg

-Kevin

[Methanolandbrats]

Might be a good idea to change the air filter in your cars. I wonder if any of the fine stuff is getting through them?

[Gnam]

Your continent is broken. :p

cool pics. :thumbup:

[opinionated ow]

Your continent is broken. :p

cool pics. :thumbup:

It has to be the wildest...we get the lost. Dust, drought, floods, snow, teeming rain, mega thunderstorms, cyclones (hurricanes/typhoons), waterspouts, massive bushfires and we have the second highest amount of tornadoes after the usa (not a lot of people know that because nobody lives where they happen).

And it's got nothing to do with alleged climate change. Dorothea McKellar-an Australian poet-wrote this piece in 1904 whilst homesick in Ye Olde England.

My Country

The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze…

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

[Napoleon]

. .
And it's got nothing to do with alleged climate change.

I read a book a few years ago, I think it must have been "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jerad Diamond (great book, btw) where his basic thesis is that those parts of the world that are most developed today are basically as a result of what you could call a historical accident of climates in certain parts of the world, and the happenstance distribution of certain grains and animals which make good work animals. As part of it he discussed in detail all those aspects of different parts of the world and of any Continent except Antarctica, Australia was far and away the place that really was simply not suited for human habitation, let alone a place that could lead to human cultures you see in the Fertile Crescent or in Europe. No offense, but its natural attributes make it a hellhole. For that reason alone the Aborigines were never going to be other then a group of people whose highest aspiration would be to live to see another dawn.

PS - PBS did a series based on Guns, G & S narrated by Diamond that some here may be familiar with.

[oddlycalm]

Might be a good idea to change the air filter in your cars. I wonder if any of the fine stuff is getting through them?

No doubt. After Mt. St. Helens puked we bought a lot of air cleaners until the fall rains came and washed it away.

oc

[Kiwifan]

Think of it this way, Rusty; no need for you to go see South Australia, it's coming to to see you. :)

You know QLD is my favorite State though don't you? :)

Took a drive around the Bendigo/Ballarat region in March and it was a dust bowl then and that's not even the Bush. The Goulburn Valley was green but then we hit North Melbourne after the fires and seeing the whole countryside black was something I'll never forget. Poor buggers.

[opinionated ow]

You know QLD is my favorite State though don't you? :)

Took a drive around the Bendigo/Ballarat region in March and it was a dust bowl then and that's not even the Bush. The Goulburn Valley was green but then we hit North Melbourne after the fires and seeing the whole countryside black was something I'll never forget. Poor buggers.

How'd you enjoy the coating from South Australia mate?

[Kiwifan]

Haven't seen it here in Tekapo yet but your mob want dust samples taken from the Ski Fields so they can analyze it.

See you have had another bad day in Syd.

Take care mate.

[Napoleon]

A good video on how quick the storm can come in.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Dust-storm-in-Australia-turns-the-sky-BLACK-in-one-minute

[oddlycalm]

A good video on how quick the storm can come in.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Dust-storm-in-Australia-turns-the-sky-BLACK-in-one-minute

Amazing video, total lights out. Easy to imagine what people without modern communications and satellite imagining would be thinking....:eek:

oc

[TravelGal]

Whew, I just missed this by 3 days. I know it's self-centered but I'm sure glad I got back to LAX before the airports were closed in Oz. The thing that stuck me even more than the pictures was the fact that that had to stop the Sydney Harbour ferries for a time because visibility was so bad. That's bad, mate.

As for South Australia, after my travel agent conference I took the Murray Princess riverboat. They have just enough water to continue it. River was six feet higher only two years ago on the stretch they use north of Mannum.

To digress massively, while in Adelaide, I had a tour where the coach driver was a big CART and F1 fan. He pointed out every stretch of road that had been used in Adelaide. He knew every turn at Long Beach. "Those were the days" we both agreed.

[opinionated ow]

Whew, I just missed this by 3 days. I know it's self-centered but I'm sure glad I got back to LAX before the airports were closed in Oz. The thing that stuck me even more than the pictures was the fact that that had to stop the Sydney Harbour ferries for a time because visibility was so bad. That's bad, mate.

As for South Australia, after my travel agent conference I took the Murray Princess riverboat. They have just enough water to continue it. River was six feet higher only two years ago on the stretch they use north of Mannum.

To digress massively, while in Adelaide, I had a tour where the coach driver was a big CART and F1 fan. He pointed out every stretch of road that had been used in Adelaide. He knew every turn at Long Beach. "Those were the days" we both agreed.

Ferry stoppages are pretty common! Especially for the catamarans. Nothing beats a trip to Manly on a high sea day though :D

As for the Murray...in white Australian history, that river has not flown more than it has.

[Kiwifan]

Whew, I just missed this by 3 days. I know it's self-centered but I'm sure glad I got back to LAX before the airports were closed in Oz.

So you were in the neigborhood eh? We are only a 3 hour flight across the ditch and we don't have dust or snakes. :)

So sad that so many people were so in love with our sport not that long ago. It breaks my heart. :cry:

Rusty.

[TravelGal]

Ferry stoppages are pretty common! Especially for the catamarans. Nothing beats a trip to Manly on a high sea day though :D

As for the Murray...in white Australian history, that river has not flown more than it has.

Can't argue about the ferries because they rarely make the news so I thought it was unique because they stopped because of visibility. As for the Murray, not quite sure what you're saying but it's easy to see where the wetlands WERE a couple of years ago and where the river level WAS a couple of years ago.


So you were in the neigborhood eh? We are only a 3 hour flight across the ditch and we don't have dust or snakes. :)

So sad that so many people were so in love with our sport not that long ago. It breaks my heart. :cry:

Rusty.

It breaks my heart also Rusty. Sigh. As for the ditch, it's worse than you think. I was in Auckland for 3 nights before Oz. But there's that bit o'water between you and the north island and it *was* a working trip so I did not alert the media. Poor excuse, I know. But I'll be back. I have to--or I'll lose my accreditation. LOL!

[opinionated ow]

As for the Murray, not quite sure what you're saying but it's easy to see where the wetlands WERE a couple of years ago and where the river level WAS a couple of years ago.

The Murray River, since 1788 (when white settlement of Australia occurred), has frequently been nothing more than a chain of ponds. It's only the construction of the locks late in the 1800s and into the early 1900s that have attempted to keep it flowing. Still doesn't always work!

There is a solution though...instead of a national broadband network that we need like a hole in the head, a dirty great pipe from the seasonal wetlands of Queensland and the Northern Territory to the top of the Darling River would solve the problem!