Wednesday 23 September 2009

Sulfurous clouds and banshee winds

Everyone is talking about this dust storm aren't they! It's something never before seen in Sydney, but not so uncommon in other parts of Australia.

I recently read The Road From Coorain, by Jill Ker Conway. In it she describes a three day dust storm her family experienced on their property in far western NSW:

"One sweltering late afternoon in March, I walked out to collect wood for the stove. Glancing towards the west, I saw a terrifying sight. A vast boiling cloud was mounting in the sky, black and sulfurous yellow at the heart, varying shades of ocher red at the edges. Where I stood, the air was utterly still, but the writhing cloud was approaching silently and with great speed.
...
A dust storm usually lasts days, blotting out the sun, launching banshee winds day and night. It is dangerous to stray far from shelter, because the sand and grit lodge in one's eyes, and a visibility often reduced to a few feet can make one completely disoriented. Animals which become exhausted and lie down are often sanded over and smothered. There is nothing anyone can do but stay inside, waiting for the calm after the storm. Inside, it is stifling. Every window must be closed against the dust, which seeps relentlessly through the slightest crack. Meals are gritty and sleep elusive. Rising in the morning, one sees a perfect outline of one's body, an afterimage of white where the dust has not collected on the sheets."

2 comments:

ud said...

That's scary alright.

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