Red Dawn: Sydney.

[Gandalf]

ABC News

Sydneysiders woke to a red dawn this morning as a huge dust storm blanketed the city, carried east by gale-force winds of up to 100kph.

The dust reduced visibility across the city and large parts of the state, with callers to ABC Radio saying the scene looked like something from the end of the world.

Karen from Dulwich Hill, in Sydney's inner west, says 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," she said.

The Health Department is urging anyone with asthma or breathing difficulties to stay inside.

Sydney Ferries has cancelled its services and flights into Sydney have been diverted to Brisbane and Melbourne. Departing flights are delayed.

The dust has reduced visibility on the harbour to two metres and buses have been put on to get passengers to and from Manly.

Sydney Ferries says ferry tickets can be used on buses this morning.

The SES had 175 calls for help overnight. Most came from Crookwell, north of Canberra, where hail the size of cricket balls has fallen and roofs have been damaged.

The Weather Bureau has issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds in Sydney, with a gale warning issued for Sydney closed waters.

Bureau of Meteorology spokeswoman Jane Golding said dust had settled on much of the state, including Sydney.

"It's pretty widespread," she said.

"We've had reports of low visibility up out as far up as Moree, Dubbo, Canberra's got some raised dust in the area and Wollongong, so it's very widespread."

Ms Golding said the weather system was moving in from the west and Sydney could expect dusty conditions throughout the morning.

Gale force winds of up to 100kph hit the Hunter region before moving through Sydney early this morning.

"Dubbo's still in pretty thick dust. The dust will last a bit but we're also expecting those winds to pick up as well."

The storm has also wreaked havoc in the Hunter Valley, where the dusty air reducing visibility to between 100 and 200 metres.

Peter from Branxton says he cannot see past his front gate.

"It looks foggy but it's not fog, if you're going to do a movie about the end of the world you'd do it today," he said.

Lorraine from Broke thought there was a bushfire.

"It's very dusty, visibility is very poor and we have an orange crimson light, it's quite eerie," she said.

Steve from Maitland says he has never seen anything like it.

"Bushfirey-type smoke, but the dust is very pungent... I've just shut the house up," he said.

Yesterday gale force winds whipped up heavy dust storms and powerful electrical storms across parts of New South Wales.

The NSW State Emergency Service received more than 150 calls for assistance overnight as the gale force winds struck.

Twenty five calls for help came from Broken Hill and 40 from the small town of Crookwell, between Canberra and Sydney, where hail the size of cricket balls has fallen.

The remaining calls were scattered across the state, as far up as Port Macquarie and down to the Victorian border.

The winds will also reach parts of Victoria, where a flash flooding warning has been issued.

Fire threat

A fire weather warning has been issued for southern parts of Queensland and northern parts of New South Wales today.

Fire crews have contained a bushfire that was threatening homes on Macleay Island, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, overnight.

Police evacuated homes in the area as a precaution, while they burnt off the areas surrounding them.

Strong winds fanned the flames.

Homes are no longer under threat, but fire crews are still working to put out the blaze.

Earthquakes

Two small earthquakes struck Melbourne's south-east in quick succession last night.

A quake measuring 2.6 on the Richter scale occurred about 20 kilometres south of Frankston around 6:20pm AEST.

A magnitude 3.0 tremor struck further south 14 seconds later.

Residents have reported hearing a loud noise and feeling the ground shake, but the State Emergency Service says it has not received any reports of damage.

This morning when I woke up I thought that my eyes must have been bleeding because everything was red. This was something of a relief.

[General Zod]

So Australia's experiencing its own version of the Dustbowl? Fun times.

[Korvan]

Your title got my hopes up that a sequel to Red Dawn (a bad movie I love to hate) was in the works. Go Wolverines, er, Dingos!

[Feral Abacus]

My mum is in Broken Hill, apparently it was pitch black at 3pm. Crazy.

[loomer]

It's 10AM here, and the dust storm is about to hit town proper here on the QLD border. It's a big storm, if it's still kicking around down in Sydney.

[Stark]

Holy shit you're right.

It's right outside my door! I gotta TESTIFY!

Ps that's a big fucking dust cloud.

[General Zod]

Holy shit you're right.

It's right outside my door! I gotta TESTIFY!

Ps that's a big fucking dust cloud.

pics

[tim31]

Raining here.

We may be Australia's poor inbred cousin but we're still Australia's poor inbred cousin.

[loomer]

Goddamn, this is fucking my nose up. My house isn't airtight and I have both severe allergies and pretty bad asthma when it strikes, so this should be fun.

and the smell. It smells like the first day of the local show - or like when I used to grind pretty rocks up as a kid and sell them to vain girls as 'make up'.

[Stark]

You can't see the other side of the river from the CBD any more. PS I'm more than 1000kms from Sydney.

END OF WORLD NIGH.

I'll get Flash to post to pics. IF HE'S STILL ALIVE.

[Stark]

I don't know about anyone else, but it has officially overtaxed the climate system in my building. Yay for inescapable dirt smell!

[Flash]

I just went for a short drive around my area - it's actually kind of eerie right now.



That's the current view from my back verandah, taken at 11:45AM. Even though it's a shitty photo you can still see the amount of crap in the air, and the reddish tinge. For the record, i'm about 20km south of Brisbane.

[Flash]

And here's one that Starkers took in the Brisbane CBD proper.

[loomer]

Ours is a bit brighter orange down on the NSW/QLD border. Looks kind of like a poisonous gas cloud - if the colours are showing right up there, it just looks like Godzilla should be rampaging down the road.

[Stark]

The pic I took has really bad colour; it's very pink/orange here too. And people are walking around down there, poor sods.

[fnord]

It's weird here (N side of Brisvegas) being underneath a red sky - it turned up midday or so here, much to the cats' disgust.

[Pick]

Yeah, my friend in Brisbane was telling me about this. Sounds pretty spooky, but also kind of cool.

[bobalot]

Railway men love to take photos. Here's a a few good ones circulating around our emails.

[General Zod]

As bad as that has to be for the environment that actually looks kind of fucking cool.

[The Yosemite Bear]

I wonder how long before we get the gangs of raiders against Mel Gibson...

[PainRack]

Railway men love to take photos. Here's a a few good ones circulating around our emails.

Wow...... For a moment, I thought those were pics off a movie set.

[Neko_Oni]

Pretty spooky feeling around midday, though it's clearing up now. Smells like dust everywhere you go, cars are covered in a thin layer of it, and it's fucking my eyes and nose up. However it did look cool for a while.

[Feral Abacus]

It got really bad out west, too. My mother took some photos on her phone.






This last one was taken at 3pm.


All I can say is, I'm glad my car is red.

[weemadando]

My first thought (honestly) was "it's a good time to be a window cleaner in Sydney."

[Dartzap]

Its certainly going to help the peace process for redheads, at any rate!

Thankfully we have managed to avoid any uncivilised weather this year....