The weather gods have gone mad in Australia!

yea mate your not wrong, i live in bli bli, and work in kunda park (both only 10km from maroochydore) and at around midday today i was outside, i looked up and wow! a huge cloud coming directly for us from around about brissi way, well that cloud is now black from lack of sun, but its still chokey, coughy weather outside. i had to don a dust face mask for the dust was seriously getting to me!

My partner and I were, literally this very minute, standing at the back door and looking at the dust (or is it smoke from the fires) that have, as you say, turned the sky that dirty yellow. And this after I have just praised Australia in another discussion for its good weather and lack of earthquakes lol. Lash

Im in Brisbane,and thd dust storm has hit here. i look outside and cant see that far and the win in blowing down the road and into the shop.Its madness here

A few weeks ago I was in Sydney the day after everything was orange, but it was still VERY dusty. I was in Melbourne a few days later. The plane had difficulty landing in the gale force winds. Then they had trouble attaching the steps to the plane and could only manage the front steps. We were warned not to wear anything loose and soon found out why. We could hardly walk in the wind. Then two weeks ago I drove to Townsville and we passed a number of burnt-out areas. We left Townsville an hour later than planned, but had we left when planned, we would have been stopped at Carmilla. They were still finishing off the fire there, with the road just re-opened. The bushfire had come right up to the road and jumped it in places. [i][b]I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, Of rugged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding plains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror - The wide brown land for me! Core of my heart, my country! Land of the Rainbow Gold, For flood and fire and famine, she pays us back three-fold.[/b] [/i] (excerpts from My Country by Dorothea Mackellar OBE)

I am here in Perth far away from everybody and here we are still wondering where spring is and whether the rain is ever going to stop! The rain was welcome because we’ve had water restrictions for ages but now I am sick of being cold and wet! We’ve had hailstorms not too long ago as well. It fells like something really weird is hovering above us causing all sorts of havoc!

am in the southern part of the philippines and i am very lucky to be out of the typhoon belt. but we are not spared by flash floods every time there is a heavy rain. sometimes i get to go home and had to waddle in a knee high flood in the street road. and i am living in the city. some residents on the lower portions near the big river always are in danger of bigger floods specially if there is rain in the upper lying farms. just a few months back, there was a big flood which affected about 2,000 families and they had to be evacuated. there were a few that werent lucky though about 6 or 8 that were announced drowned. some families were rescued on top of the roof of their houses. so i guess that is the only calamity that is ever experienced here. thank you for this discussion. ann