{"id":5928,"date":"2018-11-22T10:53:09","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T06:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/?p=5928"},"modified":"2018-11-22T10:53:09","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T06:53:09","slug":"giant-dust-storm-sweeps-across-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/2018\/11\/22\/giant-dust-storm-sweeps-across-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant dust storm sweeps across Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\"><strong>A giant dust storm has blanketed communities across south-east Australia, turning skies orange and raising concerns about air quality.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Authorities issued a public health alert for Sydney on Thursday as the 500km-wide (310 miles) dust band reached the city and caused flight delays.<\/p>\n<p>Many regions elsewhere in New South Wales (NSW) have had poor visibility.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said the storm was driven by strong winds picking up dry soil.<\/p>\n<p>The problem has been exacerbated by a drought that has affected the entire state of NSW since August, according to Australia&#8217;s Bureau of Meteorology.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/2CF0\/production\/_104440511_1eae2057-49c2-4b2d-8e3f-6428db32279a.png\" alt=\"A view of the dust storm in Broken Hill\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The dust storm has already affected other parts of New South Wales<\/p>\n<p>Paramedics said dozens of people had reported breathing or asthma difficulties on Thursday, but the number affected by dust was not immediately clear.<\/p>\n<p>In Sydney, the dust darkened skies and caused &#8220;hazardous&#8221; air quality readings in some suburbs.<\/p>\n<p>Health officials urged locals to stay indoors, particularly children, older people and those with respiratory problems.<\/p>\n<p>Paramedics said dozens of people had reported breathing or asthma difficulties on Thursday, but the number affected by dust was not immediately clear.<\/p>\n<p>In Sydney, the dust darkened skies and caused &#8220;hazardous&#8221; air quality readings in some suburbs.<\/p>\n<p>Health officials urged locals to stay indoors, particularly children, older people and those with respiratory problems.<\/p>\n<p>One resident in Broken Hill, a town 1,100km west of Sydney, said the dust had lingered for hours on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You walked outside and it was in your eyes and it was just a gritty feeling,&#8221; Matt Whitelum told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>The Sydney dust storm has drawn comparisons to a more intense event which shrouded the city in 2009.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/A3FF\/production\/_104438914_gettyimages-545402170.jpg\" alt=\"A dust storm from 2009 makes the Sydney Opera House barely visible\" width=\"784\" height=\"441\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><span class=\"off-screen\">I<\/span><\/span><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\">The 2009 dust storm seen above the Sydney Opera House<\/figure>\n<p>That dust storm left hundreds of people suffering from breathing difficulties, and forced the grounding of flights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A giant dust storm has blanketed communities across south-east Australia, turning skies orange and raising concerns about air quality. Authorities issued a public health alert for Sydney on Thursday as the 500km-wide (310 miles) dust band reached the city and caused flight delays. Many regions elsewhere in New South Wales (NSW) have had poor visibility. &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5930,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5928\/revisions\/5930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}