Yesterday Brisbane was hit with a dust storm. Strong westerly winds (that is, winds blowing from the west) from the outback kicked up lots of sand and dust since the last few months have been very dry. They hit Brisbane in mid-afternoon, turning the sky reddish-brown as if in a medium fog. Here's a news story about the dust, and some (Creative Commons-licensed) pictures that I found on Flickr. The pictures have not had their colours altered in any way, this is how it really looked.
When I got home in the evening the air had mostly cleared, but my throat still tickled a little. By this morning, when I went for a 10km run, the skies were clear and there was no sign of dust anywhere, except of course all over every flat surface in my apartment since I had left the glass patio doors open all day.
