Want to swap? Here in Broken Hill we are just getting a huge Dust-Storm moving across town, the sky is a very dusty red, the wind is howling and everything has a gritty taste or feel to it.
And Yes, I know about wildfires, bushfires as we call them, they are horrific and my thoughts go out to those affected by them.

@Triphid How far away do those things start in Australia? In the Dirty 30's Dustbowl, the bread basket of America was essentially turned into a desert, and the top soil stripped away to travele in the atmosphere from the Texas Panhandle (Amarillo area) to NYC (about 1300 miles - 2100km).

@jondspen Well, considering that Australia IS a very dry and arid land away from the coastal regions and that at least 80% of the country has been in drought for almost 10 straight years, the deep inland regions are virtually dried out and bereft of the meager plant-life that holds the top soil in place a decent strong, mostly westerly wind can lift literally tons of top soil into the atmosphere thus creating massive dust storms that simply roll along endlessly.
The problem in the American Panhandle was different in that it WAS created by the primitive plowing and planting methods used by the farmers up until the 1930, they simply ripped through every inch of land, probably cut down trees and natural protections for the top soil as they went with never a thought to the future disaster/s they were making for themselves and everyone else.
As I've stated elsewhere, " Screw with the delicate balances of Nature and you do so at YOUR own risk."

@Triphid Oh yea, it was completely man made here- I was just curious about what kind of experience you had there with it. I know there it is due (mostly ?) to the weather patterns and position/composition of the land mass, just wondering if any of it was related to human intervention. I know the GBR is really suffering b/c of polution and ocean temps rising.

@Triphid lol...wow, that's crazy. is there lots of health problems (like asthma) or deaths (very young or very old probably most vulnerable) from it? Sounds like it's fairly common.

@jondspen Dust Storms used to be a very regular and common thing here right from when the town was first established and up until the late 60s-early 70s, now they are a bit of a rarity since people have been serious about helping the native flora, trees, etc, regenerate.
In a book written about the beginnings of the Mines here there's a chapter that shows clearly how the biggest Mining Consortium, B.H.P. alone cut down virtually every tree within a 70 mile radius of the mines simply to use the timber for struts, etc, in their mine, one example was in 1889 they sent out 4 Bullock Drays ( long open wagons pulled by bullocks) in ONE day and the axe-men cut down over 50 tons of trees. There are place nearby where you can still see the stumps of the trees they cut down.
Most of our dust storms were originated locally, within a 50-150 mile radius, but now we only get them when the dry and arid regions in the center of the country get really whipped up by strong westerly/south-westerly winds in seasons of drought like we are enduring at present.
Yes, asthma has always been a problem here BUT air-borne lead dust, etc, was, without a doubt, the worst plus the smoke and dusts exhausted by the B.H.P. Smelter, now extinct thankfully.