Video: Sandstorm in Western Australia, 11 January 2013
By Ruth Doherty
11 January 2013 (AOL) – Incredible pictures of an enormous wall of dust hitting Australia’s west coast have been captured by tugboat workers and plane passengers. The red sand and dust storm headed towards the town of Onslow in north-western Australia, after being picked up by winds in the Indian Ocean. Tugboat worker Brett Martin, who managed to capture some shots of the tsunami of sand, said visibility was reduced to 100 metres, and the swell rose to two metres, according to the Daily Mail.
Brett, who was working west of False Island when the storm passed over, told the West Australian: “We were steaming along in the boat just before sunset and the storm was casually building in the distance, then it got faster and faster and it went from glass to about 40 knots in two minutes. “It was like a big dust storm under a thunderhead, there was a lot of lightning but not a lot of rain. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It was pretty special and it was definitely an eerie feeling.” [more]
