G'day Mate- Dust Storm in Australia

I don't know if anyone has heard, but recently in Australia, there was this huge dust storm. I know what you're thinking: Australia is on the other side of the world- you either had no idea or don't care. Which is totally fine. BUT it is really interesting. I especially find it crazy because I was in Australia for three months last summer, and I lived in Sydney where they got hit pretty bad with this storm. So when my Aussie friend called me and told me what happened, I was shocked! He said how everyone woke up in the morning, and all you could see was orange dust being swirled around every where because of the intense wind. I was reading some articles about it online, and one lady being interviewed said, "When i first woke up, my curtains were drawn so i assumed there was some hectic large bushfire...." The dust was that bright! Everything was covered. The cars, the streets, the people walking outside... It wasn't advised that anyone went out of their house, because the ventilation was so bad. Many people, as a result were hospitalized. Not to mention, this was no small thing. The dust storm was 310 miles wide and 620 miles long that swept the East coast. It's really an unbelievable picture.

When my friend called me, the dust had settled down, but it still covered a lot of the cars and it was still in the air. People were walking around with scarves and masks to cover their noses. It's so hard for me to believe- that the place I lived for three months, basically turned orange. I thought it was fascinating and I found myself reading a lot about it! But for those of you who have never been to Australia and can't get the mental picture, here are some photos I found of the dust storm. It's really amazing.

Take a look at that! That's the dust cloud first coming in!

Before the Storm:

SydneyOpera house
After -->

This is the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Can you see it?? Barely? My point exactly.