Mars-like red dust storm shrouds Sydney

A science fictional, Mars-like, red dust storm shrouded Sydney, Australia on Wednesday, nearly closing the country’s largest airport and leaving millions of people bewildered and concerned. Fueled by the worst drought on record, the “cloud of red Outback grit,” was Australia’s worst dust storm in 70 years. Jochen Schweitzer of Surry Hills told the BBC, "My wife woke me up -- the sky looked like it was from Mars -- amazing colours.” The Sydney Morning Herald even published an article with this line: “As British science fiction writer John Wyndham might have said, when people in Sydney wake up to a sky from Mars, something is seriously wrong somewhere.” The dust storm is now reportedly moving east toward New Zealand.

What makes this even more eerie is that the 68th Worldcon will be held in Melbourne, Australia in September 2010. One of the Guests of Honor: Kim Stanley Robinson.

And, as I reported last week, director Damon Keen and his film team in New Zealand are working on a short film entitled Last Flight. It’s about the last woman alive on Mars and her dwindling air supply. Lights, camera, action!

[via Torie Atkinson of Tor.com]