Red Sky in the Morning ….
Posted on Sunday 27th September 2009
… shepherd’s warning? Nope. Just a strange twist of weather that whipped up the red dust that Australia’s interior is famous for and blew it all the way over to the far East Coast.
So you can imagine the surprise of Sydneysiders who woke up on Thursday morning to find the sky almost blood red, and visibility down to less than a hundred metres in places.
Unfortunately I have no images of similar scenes over Adelaide as the dust blew east rather than south. That is probably for the best, as a record number of acute respiratory cases presented to the Sydney hospitals that day. So, while visually stunning, the dust has been a blight for the towns and cities it fell on.
That said, Adelaide and the rest of South Australia did not escape the worst of the usually fierce weather sweeping across Oceania over the past couple of weeks. We’ve had high winds, monsoon rains, lightning storms and even hail. The roads on the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas resembled a Christmas card scene rather than the usual dry scrub.
In a way, this has been very welcome. The rains have brought an usually lush appearance to the state. That combined with the grey skies have made me feel a tangible sense of nostalgia for England. It has helped bring our small garden to life and the plants I recently bought are looking very healthy. I’ll put up some photos once the sun comes out … and stays out. Knowing the usual SA weather, that won’t be long
