Thanks, interesting analysis. In my simplistic way, I assumed that decent, constant rain would soon 'wash' the dust out of the atmosphere, but there must have been a prolonged dust 'feed'.hillybilly wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:39 pmNever seen anything like it before. Seeing the photos of a red/brown Yarra is astonishing. I’ve seen plenty of dusty rain events with a few mms max, but nothing like it. Dreading seeing our pool when we get home, as these dirty rain events are like sprinkling fertiliser on the pool, so water goes brown, then cloudy the wants to turn green Usually takes a few days to get it clean. Hopefully most settled on the pool blanket.Gordon wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2020 11:03 am I would be fascinated to hear from the experts how the red rain persisted for so long? It was a first in my 25 years here; in fact I can't recall it ever in my lifetime. Occasionally, we get a few red drops as a front moves through over a dusty atmosphere, but to have hours of red rain behind the front, exceeding 20mm worth? Trying to work out how that is possible? And in southern Vic at least, it may be unprecedented?
Gut feeling is that the combination of an intense drought (record bad in parts of inland Oz), and intense winter like synoptic system, and a big stratiform rain event with a large area of upslide is so unusual that it would just about never happen.
Turned out that rain even made some local lakes red briefly before the wind got up. Just extraordinary.