Yet Another Dust Storm Shrouds Australia’s New South Wales
Less than a month ago, on September 22 – 24, 2009, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane and much of New South Wales, Australia experienced 100 kph winds whipping up heavy dust storms followed by severe thunderstorms.
Road traffic slowed down to a crawl, ferries canceled, flights diverted or canceled as dust storm shrouded Sydney, and suffocating haze forced the residents to stay indoors.
“This is unprecedented. We are seeing earth, wind and fire together,” said Australia’s Weather Channel presenter.
The storm was one of the worst dust storms in Australia.
There were more dust storms on the following days. Four days later, on September 26, another intense storm swept eastern Australia, covering much of Queensland and New South Wales across to the Pacific Ocean in a thick blanket of dust.
The dust storms are certain to continue. As temperatures rise, more droughts set in and the winds intensify, all of which trends have long been repeated, the question becomes one of not if, but when the dust storms would bury Sydney.
The dust storm that started the previous day had intensified by the time the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over on October 14, 2009. The large image, which encompasses a wider area, shows that the dust plume stretches tens of kilometers south of the area shown here. NASA Earth Observatory images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek. [Edited by FEWW]
How Much Dust Would it Take?
Just how much dust would it take, and under what circumstances could it make Sydney uninhabitable?
FEWW Moderators have asked their friends at EDRO to provide a realistic estimate, the details of which would be posted here.
UPDATE
Here’s a link to a reply prepared by EDRO TEAM:
Related Links:
Australian Oil Disaster Links:
Fire Earth 
