"The bronze clouds surged skyward as they neared the mine site, breaking through the silver clouds above, before the camp was enveloped in rust-brown mist. You just feel the grit in your teeth and your eyes start to hurt because it's just flying around, Marchant said. While visibility inside the storm was fine and wind was low, the thunder and lightning that followed sent the crew inside."
"The carwashes I'm assuming got a running through: everyone needed to definitely wash their white utes, Marchant said. Dust storms are a product of weather systems with heavy winds lifting up dry earth and sand and taking them across the landscape, according to soil expert Dr John Grant. Dry climates such as the Australian outback encourage the storms, with areas of low rainfall seeing the events almost monthly, said Grant, a lecturer at Southern Cross University."
Lachlan Marchant and colleagues encountered a massive dust storm while returning to their shed at Newmont’s Tanami Desert goldmine. The orange-brown cloud rolled across the horizon and enveloped the camp, producing rust-brown mist that left grit in workers' mouths and stung their eyes. Visibility inside the storm remained acceptable and wind was low, but thunder and lightning forced the crew indoors. The storm passed after about an hour and left muddy rain across the site, prompting crews to wash vehicles. Soil expert Dr John Grant explained that heavy winds lift dry earth and sand in arid regions, and that low-rainfall areas like the outback can experience such storms almost monthly.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]