-
A dust storm blankets Sydney - Source: Reuters -
Watch Video
-
View Photos
-
Related
A huge outback dust storm swept eastern Australia and blanketed
Sydney, disrupting transport, forcing people indoors and stripping
thousands of tonnes of valuable farmland topsoil.
The dust blacked out the outback town of Broken Hill on Tuesday,
forcing a zinc mine to shut down, and swept 1,167 km east to shroud
Sydney in a red glow.
By noon the storm, carrying an estimated five million tonnes of
dust, had spread to the southern part of Australia's tropical state
of Queensland.
Check out photos of the dust storm.
Dust storms in Australia are not uncommon but are usually restricted to the inland.
Occasionally, during widespread drought, dust storms reach coastal areas.
Australia is the driest inhabited continent and only Antartica
is drier.
Australia is battling one of its worst droughts and weather
officials say an El Nino is slowly developing in the Pacific which
will mean drier conditions for eastern states.
The country is one of the most vulnerable nations to climate
change, but also the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter per
capita as it relies on coal-fired power stations for the bulk of
its electricity.
Scientists are reluctant to directly link climate change with
extreme weather events such as storms and drought, saying these
fluctuate according to atmospheric conditions, but green groups
link the two in their calls for action.
International flights were diverted from Sydney, ferries on Sydney
Harbour were suspended and motorists warned to take care on roads
because of poor visibility.
The dust set off smoke alarms in some buildings in Sydney's
central business district and halted construction.
Health authorities urged people to stay indoors, warning the storm
was likely to continue into Thursday.
More than 200 people called emergency services with breathing difficulties.
The official air quality index for New South Wales recorded pollutant levels as high as 4,164 in Sydney.
A level above 200 is hazardous.
"People at risk are children, elderly, pregnant women, people with
heart and lung diseases. Dust particles can increase the risk of
people with these conditions becoming unwell," said Wayne Smith
from the New South Wales state health department.
Earth, wind and fire
The Bureau of Meteorology said a big cold front in New South Wales caused severe thunderstorms and gale-force winds, which whipped up the dust from the inland and spread it across Australia's most populous state.
Winds of more than 100 km per hour also fanned bushfires in the
state.
"This is unprecedented. We are seeing earth, wind and fire
together," said Dick Whitaker from The Weather Channel.
New South Wales recently cut the state's 2009/10 wheat crop
estimate by a fifth because of dry weather.
Sydney residents told local radio that they woke to scenes from a
Hollywood apocalyptic movie, while many contacted emergency
services fearing a big bushfire in the city.
Karen from Sydney's inner western suburb of Dulwich Hill said she
woke up to find the red dust had covered her floors and birds had
been blown out of their nests.
"It did feel like Armageddon because when I was in the kitchen
looking out the skylight, there was this red, red glow coming
through," Karen told Australian radio.
The blanket of dust affected most of New South Wales, the
fifth-biggest state or territory representing 10% of the continent,
and southern parts of Queensland state.
The dust storms stripped valuable topsoil from primary eastern
farmlands.
At one stage up to 75,000 tonnes of dust per hour was blown
across Sydney and dumped in the Pacific Ocean, but the exact amount
of dust dumped on Sydney was still being calculated.
"We've got a combination of factors which have been building for 10
months already - floods, droughts and strong winds," said Craig
Strong from DustWatch at Griffith University in Queensland.
"Add to these factors the prevailing drought conditions that reduce
the vegetation cover and the soil surface is at its most vulnerable
to wind erosion."
But crop analysts said the storm is unlikely to have an immediate
impact on wheat crops, in the country's second-largest grain
producing state, due to be harvested next month.
Further cold fronts are expected later in the week and could again
whip up more dust storms, said weather officials.
