Dust Storms
On Wednesday morning, if you woke up early enough you would have seen a spooky red glow from your windows as the rising sun hit the red dust blown from inland Australia. Reports said that visibility was only about 500m, and that air pollution levels were about 1500 times their normal levels. It felt a bit like waking up on Mars! As the sun got higher, the air looked less red, and more orange, then yellow, then finally by the afternoon, pretty clear. The teacher’s cars all looked absolutely filthy!
It was very dirty and hard to breathe, so lots of people stayed at home. We only had 12 people in class, and had to stay inside all day, even at play time, just in case someone got sick. It was interesting looking at the news website in class that morning, as people all over Sydney had been taking photos of the weird weather and were sending them in. We used those photos to inspire some dusty-day artworks of our own, and some sensory poetry to go with it.
Wow…can’t complain anymore about all of our rain after reading about your sandstorm.