On Wednesday, October 13 2002, the biggest dust storm in over 30 years hit the eastern states of Australia, covering the landscape in a film of red dust which was whipped up by strong winds across inland Australia.

Strong northwesterly winds ahead of a brutal southwesterly wind change lifted millions of tonnes of valuable topsoil across NSW/QLD and out to the sea. The drought and lack of vegetation in inland farming areas no doubt contributed to this rare event.

From 11.30am to 4pm the dust storm moved through the Sydney Basin and Hunter Valley, reducing visibility to around 3km. West of the ranges visibility was down to 300m or less. Bushfires also contributed to the hazy sky. Roma in South Central QLD reported visibility of 100m, and Dalby in SE QLD 500m!

The event was well covered in the media, the dust storm topping all news bulletins and making it onto the front page of the papers the next day; photos of this amazing phenomenon of the eerie red glow of the sky.

Some amazing satellite images were released by the Bureau of Meteorology, the links below go to the Melbourne Storm Chasers site owned by Jane O Neill who has permission to use them. The dust storm can clearly be seen extending about 1500km long by 400km wide, and 2.5km high across NSW and QLD.