Topic: Dust Storms, Severe Thunderstorms, Wind, Rain & Snow over Southeast Australia: 19 - 27 Sep 2009

[Jimmy Deguara]

Kristy,

Nice mammatus in those images. Did the storms provide further rainfall for the crops there?

The first image you mention could be the outline in between two mammatus bubbles. Hard to tell otherwise.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Kristy Norman]

We recieved 4mm overnight and a further 2mm today. Not much but any rain is good rain!
Some small hail came down in a shower this afternoon but it blew over in seconds.
The storms today were moving really quickly and the wind was strong and gusty all day, not to mention freezing cold. Today's maximum temp only got to 11.6 degrees.

[Colin Maitland]

In SEQld we are being hit with the second wave of a dust storm. Winds are ranging from 67Km/h in Oakey to 50 + km/h.at the Brisbane airport.
We have the house completely shut up but the dust is coming in and making it rather unpleasant and hard to breathe. The dust seems to be finer than that of Wednesdays  storm.
 This event hit Brisbane around 6:10pm.

Meanwhile fire fighters are fighting 28 fires across QLD tonight , The ABC reports that  385 fire personnel and 136 appliances are being used in the fire fighting efforts. This is also adding to breathing problems. There are several fires near our place here in Brisbane.

Col.

 

[Antonio (stormboy)]

below is the second dust storm approaching the northern rivers

[Antonio (stormboy)]

my attatchment was too big for the above post so here is part two of an extended view

[Michael Bath]

Certainly amazing to get a second dust storm reach the coast so soon after Wednesday's storm of dust!  I was in Brisbane for the ASWA meeting and there was a slight dust haze all day but it certainly thickened up later. Arriving home the visibility reduced to about 1.5km - that compares to about 250 metres on Wednesday. It still looked impressive - like in Harley's photos.  This morning (Sunday 27th) there is still plenty of dust but the visibility is at least 15-20ks.

Great to see a few flood warnings in VIC - been a long time since many of those streams have been in flood. Lots of rain and floods in TAS again but they do NOT need it.

Have not had the chance to read all the forums but guess snow levels have been pretty low.

[nmoir]

i went to Hay in the riverina of nsw to watch the 2nd dust storm pass by . It gradually got thicker over about a 2 hr period.

good fun but the locals just went about business as usual , even doing tennis practice under lights

[Shaun Galman]

G'day Shauno and all,

This report might answer your question

The report by Geoff Chambers states:

The dirt shifted across NSW, north to the Gold Coast and as far afield as the southern alps in New Zealand.

CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research expert Dr Ross Mitchell said around 16 million tonnes of dust could have been whipped up by the dust storm.

He based that on detailed calcuations of a similar event in October 2003.

Cheers

Col

Thanks so much for the answer Col! Very interesting and impressive!

I've been talking with a few people about a more sinister side of the dust storm in the shape of radioactive particulate matter spread from the Maralinga Nuclear test site in S.A.
I heard something about it on the radio but missed most of the story.
Seems plausible I guess? Not sure of the quantities though, I'd say it would be a fairly minor percentage of radiation per ton.

Take care guys,
Shauno.

[Colin Maitland]

I've been talking with a few people about a more sinister side of the dust storm in the shape of radioactive particulate matter spread from the Maralinga Nuclear test site in S.A.
I heard something about it on the radio but missed most of the story.
Seems plausible I guess? Not sure of the quantities though, I'd say it would be a fairly minor percentage of radiation per ton.

It really is a worry, but you wonder if we would ever get the real truth or if they would be gagged. There seems to be a lot of theories regarding the radioactive possibilities of the storms. One of the better articles reported by Greg Roberts from News .com  reads in part:

A TEAM of Australian scientists are analysing the dust that has engulfed eastern Australia this week to see whether it is dangerous.

The dust storm is believed to have originated around Woomera in outback South Australia near the massive Olympic Dam uranium mine, prompting fears it was radioactive and dangerous.

Climatologist Professor Nigel Tapper, from Melbourne's Monash University, played down the risks to humans but said the dust might threaten important eco-systems such as the Great Barrier Reef.

"Certainly the dust storm could have potentially come from those outback areas, we believe it has mainly come from dry lake and creek beds and elsewhere in the Lake Eyre basin," he said.

"That (radioactive) stuff has been spread around over a long time so I would not have thought there would be much of an issue around that.

"The main concern is over fine dust that goes right into the lungs triggering asthma and other respiratory problems."  

One of the main concerns on  the evening news tonight was the infections, diseases and conjunctivitis of the eyes that will develop in people and I suppose animals over the next few days  from all the dust and pollution that has been blown across the South east of Australia.  



Cheers

Col

[Richary]

Interesting thought about the possible radioactivity from Roxby Downs etc, though having worked there very briefly I don't think there woud be too much radioactive soil sitting around. Maralinga is a different possibility but as mentioned it would be pretty diluted by the time it got here.

As for the weather changing, slightly off topic but was down in Bowral on Sunday where wind chill at 3pm made the apparent temperature -5.3, a slight change from last week. And it felt a lot colder at the top of Mt Gibraltar! On the way home came up the M7 then onto the M4 and there was what looked like a lenticular cloud to our SE, not as well formed as some I have seen in here but had the multiple layers in 2 connected clouds. Unfortunately by the time I got to somewhere I could stop the formation wasn't as visible due to the change of angle so didn't take a photo.