# Red dawn in Sydney **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 22, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141 "2009-09-22T21:17:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![leander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/1 "2009-09-22T21:17:40Z")
So I woke to [this](http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/23/2693643.htm?section=justin)today. Apparently there’s a massive dust storm across Sydney. Very strange. Here’s [another](http://www.smh.com.au/environment/sydney-turns-red-dust-storm-blankets-city-20090923-g0so.html)pic. Fuck this is a strange country. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/2 "2009-09-22T21:20:29Z")
Whoa, that is creepy. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/3 "2009-09-22T21:22:34Z")
Wolverines! ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/4 "2009-09-22T21:23:45Z")
You Have Angered me! and I have made the air bleed! Send to me 100 Billion Dollars and I will return your normal air! ---
**Author:** ![leander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/5 "2009-09-22T21:30:21Z")
Now that the sun is up it’s turned to a creepy white haze. I fully expect to see zombies soon. ---
**Author:** ![leander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/6 "2009-09-22T21:31:23Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > You Have Angered me! and I have made the air bleed! Send to me 100 Billion Dollars and I will return your normal air! This made me laugh. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/7 "2009-09-22T21:55:54Z")
That’s… pretty cool actually. If I had been there, I would have gone outside and pretended I was a Mars explorer. ---
**Author:** ![BigNik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@BigNik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigNik)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/8 "2009-09-22T22:16:08Z")
I woke up at 5:30 - just before dawn. And that SMH pic? Not an exaggeration. The sky was the colour of blood. Has anyone worked out which gods are angry? 'Cos I’d hate to waste a baby sacrifice to start placating the wrong deity. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/9 "2009-09-22T22:16:22Z")
More photos [here](http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/environment/dust-turns-sydney-sky-red/20090923-g0tw.html) It was rather eerie. It reminded me of the description of the dying world of Charn in CS Lewis’ _The Magician’s Nephew_. Now it’s just messy with all of the dust. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/10 "2009-09-22T22:45:49Z")
Man, that is weird and awesome and a little frightening. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/11 "2009-09-22T23:41:38Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > More photos [here](http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/environment/dust-turns-sydney-sky-red/20090923-g0tw.html) Photo #16? Luna park? Fucking GAH!!! That’s terrifying! Has the creator of that monstrosity been hunted down and destroyed yet? Other than that nightmare, those pictures are pretty neat. What an amazing phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![leander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/12 "2009-09-23T00:27:39Z")
Well, things have calmed down a bit. It’s no longer eerie, just dirty and windy. Pain in the ass outdoors – you can really feel the dust kicking up. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/13 "2009-09-23T00:40:23Z")
I’m not going outside today. It’s difficult enough to breathe _inside_. ---
**Author:** ![BigNik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@BigNik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigNik)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/14 "2009-09-23T00:40:54Z")
Actually, it’s odd - the way it looks outside my office windows (as though there’s a yellowish fog low over everything) is exactly the way it looks when there are major bushfires and Lane Cove or Ku-Ring-Gai are alight. But it doesn’t have that wonderful gum-smoke smell, and that puts me on edge for some instinctual reason that I can’t explain. The look is familiar, but the smell is missing. And it’s getting into the building and settling on desks underneath the vents. "I am sitting in my dingy Little office as a stingy Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down Between the buildings tall And the foetid air and gritty Of the dusty, dirty city Through the air-conditioning floating Spreads its foulness over all" ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/15 "2009-09-23T00:43:03Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > Wolverines! Dang you. Trumping my ace . . . . ---
**Author:** ![leander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/16 "2009-09-23T00:44:06Z")
BigNik, what part of the city are you in? ---
**Author:** ![BigNik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@BigNik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigNik)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/17 "2009-09-23T00:45:45Z")
Bridge St, a block from the Quay, facing South. I can barely see the MLC Centre and can’t see Centrepoint. ---
**Author:** ![leander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/18 "2009-09-23T00:55:14Z")
Wow. I’m up in Crows Nest and the visibilty is shit too. Lots of wind too. ---
**Author:** ![BigNik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@BigNik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigNik)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/19 "2009-09-23T00:59:19Z")
Not a lot of wind here, judging by the trees. For the record, I’m a block from Patterson’s office when he wrote _Clancy_, including the lines above. I consider it an act of sacrilege that the office has been replaced with an apartment hotel with windows that don’t open and excellent natural lighting. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141/20 "2009-09-23T01:08:32Z")
There aren’t many wolverines in Australia, so the local sports team would have to be called something more appropriate. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dawn-in-sydney/511141.md?page=2)