Topic: Broken Hill Dust Storm

[wol]

My brother works for the RFDS in Broken Hill and captured this vid on his phone of an approaching storm.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Yx8gEKac2LU&rel=

Soon after the aircraft were hangered it hit.

The dust was actually being pushed ahead of a decent thunderstorm. Soon after the dust storm hit it wasn't long before the rain came down a cleaned up all the mess.

Anyone been caught in one of these??  Not a great place to be I'd imagine...

[Richary]

I have never personally seen one rolling in like that, but have seen similar photos. I remember when I was a (young) kid we lived in Woomera SA from 1970-1972.  One dust storm visibility was about 2 foot in front of me.Not sure how I found the way home, habit I guess. I think I was pretty close to home at the time. More years ago than I want to admit to!

[Peter J]

Wol

Yes, we had one go through Melbourne on February 16, 1983. First time one had gone through Melbourne since 1969. It was awesome to watch as it rolled in, but not fun to be in once it came over. It gets windy inside, and the dust is very hot to feel. Also, I remember on that afternoon, eating fish, chips and red dust for tea. (Some idiot forgot to shut the window). The BoM believed at the time, that this dust storm was one of the factors that triggered the Ash Wednesday Bushfires here (there were human factors as well).

Big Pete

[Mike]

Looks strikingly similar to Ayres Rock!  That's a nice dust storm there.  My first encounter was seeing one also in Adelaide as when i was around 10 or 12.  Saw a huge black thing moving towards us about the same size and it really triggered the 'wanting to know more' phase in my life and voila!  I thought it was a cloud but mum had seen many in her day and set me straight as to what it was.

Impressive capture moreso because we don't see a lot of happenings in the outback from SA.

Mike

[wol]

And here is a pic as well... would love to experience one of these myself one day.





and another vid of the same storm when it hit....

http://www.youtube.com/v/oIyiuPq4rmo&rel=1&border=1

[Michael Bath]

Thanks for posting those clips and photo Wol. It's something many coastal dwellers (including me) have no chance of seeing locally. Might get a chance one day when chasing storms inland into drier climates.   Would not expect much chance of that in NSW for now given many areas have greened up.