Fresh dust storm bathes Sydney in haze

(NECN/AuBC: Sydney, Australia) – Another dust storm covered Sydney, Australia, and the eastern New South Wales state on Saturday. The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds over the Australian Capital Territory and parts of New South Wales state on Saturday. A cold front is moving from the southeast across the rest of the state on Saturday, bringing raised dust with it. The dust storm cleared over Sydney later on Saturday morning. BoM regional director Barry Hanstrum said the first morning satellite picture showed a band of dust stretching from southeast NSW to the northern parts of the state, covering the Sydney area. The dust storm hit central western New South Wales state, including Bathurst and Orange, in the early morning and had started to clear by early Saturday. He said visibility in Sydney was at 5,000 meters (16404 feet), compared to 500 meters (1640 feet) on Wednesday, when thick red dust blanketed the city. This is the second dust storm to converge on Sydney this week. On Wednesday, the dust storm shrouded Sydney and surrounding areas for about eight hours, blotting out landmarks such as the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge and even reaching underground to coat subway stations. The haze, churned by powerful winds that lifted thousands of tons of topsoil from the arid and drought-stricken inland, was visible from space, appearing as a huge brown smudge in satellite photographs of Australia. The Sydney Morning Herald called it “the day the country blew into town.” No one was hurt in the storm, though health officials responded to hundreds of calls in two states from people complaining of breathing difficulties. Flights at Sydney Airport have not been affected by the dust storm on Saturday.