Red sky at dawn

This was the view from my front door at 6.30 this morning. Everyday by 6.30am the sun is already shining through the trees, catching the buildings and filling the garden with light. This murky red light disoriented me somewhat - had my clock stopped, was the end of the world taking place or had there been a bush fire down the street? In fact, what had happended was that yesterday much of Australia had experienced severe and unusual weather. In Melbourne there were two 'small' earthquakes, in Victoria and NSW there were thunderstorms and high winds, on the NSW coast there was and is a gale warning. Red soil dust from central Australia, well over 1000 miles away, had blown across the continent and shrouded the whole city of Sydney. I gather that this is the first time that this has happened in Sydney. You can imagine that all our noses and throats are very congested and that there is a red dust over everything!