The top image is what the view from our livingroom window would look like on an average sunny Sydney day.  The bottom image, is the view we woke up to on Wednesday September 23rd, 2009, the day an epic dust storm blew over the city.  This dust came all the way from the arid west, and blanketed most of the state.  Keep in mind that the continental land mass of Australia, is nearly the same size as the US, but has only six states.  That would be like the entire midwest getting lost in a cloud.  It’s no wonder they saw this dust from space!

The dust took over 12 hours to clear out, slowly becoming a grayish vale before the sun started to peak through.  So Sydney went from looking like the Mars landscape in Total Recall (minus Schwarzenegger) to Could City (without Billy Dee) and back to normal again.  Though the high winds proved very helpful in clearing the dust out to sea (actually up to Brisbane before heading over the ocean, sorry Brizzie) they also blew the dust into every nook and cranny capable of containing particulates.  So, trips outside required interesting headgear . . .

And my apartment, which I had just cleaned last week, is now a dusty mess.  What you see here is a bookcase where an alarm clock and two pairs of binoculars were sitting during the storm.

News reports of this record breaking event yesterday, ranged from discussion about how well the car washing businesses were going to do, to the environmental implications of acres of missing top soil.  With raging fires and massive floods in the US, earthquakes in Southeast Asia, and a martian haze clouding Sydney, I can’t help but wonder if the Mayans were right.  So what do you think?  Is this a sign of things to come?