Red Dawn Causes Armageddon Fears in NSW
People Wake Up to Orange Skies over New South Wales, Australia
Sep 22, 2009
The residents of Sydney suburbs, along with other towns in New South Wales, woke up to a rather strange sight on September 23rd 2009. Instead of the usual blue sky they would expect to see it had turned a rather dramatic shade of deep orange.
This rather surreal turn of events had people quite perplexed for a while since such weather conditions are extremely unusual for the NSW area.
Fears of a Huge Fire Spreading
Understandably, with the recent history of drought and the propensity for bush fires, many residents were wondering if they should pack up their emergency suitcase, jump into the "Ute" and head for the road. Bush fires are a constant worry in a land that is arid and where the forests are populated largely by eucalyptus "gum" trees that have extremely flammable leaves and papery bark.
Thankfully there were no bush fires for the local fire brigades to contend with, nor were there any Martian invaders and the explanation for the orange skies turned out to be somewhat more prosaic.
Huge Dust Storm Over New South Wales
Unusual weather conditions including hailstones and 100 km per hour winds were sweeping over NSW from the west whipping up clouds of dust high into the sky. The previous spell of warm weather had kept the dust particles suspended in the atmosphere, rather than allowing the dust to remain at ground level.
Giant Hailstones Caused Widespread Damage
Along with the dust storms huge hailstones smashed windows in southeast NSW. The State Emergency Service received more than 50 calls for help during the night from residents of Crookwell, near Goulburn, when hailstones "the size of cricket balls" smashed shop windows and damaged roof tiles.
There were reports of cars with both front and rear windscreens smashed whilst windows in houses were also damaged. There was also a great deal of damage caused to homes by fallen trees.
Fortunately, the resourceful NSW residents are organized into voluntary groups who will turn out in an emergency to help people clear up and mend the damage. However at one stage it was considered too dangerous even for the volunteers to be out and about, so they were recalled to base.
More Unusual Weather Forecast for NSW
At 9 p.m. (AEST), the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning for people living in areas including the NSW Hunter, Illawarra, south coast, central tablelands, southern tablelands, central west plains, southwest slopes and Riverina. Apparently the people of NSW are in for a rather bumpy ride.
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