Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Jane Golding says that the color comes from an exorbitant amount of dust that has collected in the area, saying:
"The reason for the dust is we had some really strong winds in the inland areas of NSW and in South Australia for a sustained period yesterday. That's lifted a whole lot of dust off the ground because it's quite dry out there, many of those areas are still drought affected�I've not seen anything like this before."
She also pointed out that the reddish haze is expected to fade as the sun gets higher in the sky, changing from "a crimson red to orange by about 7am." A severe weather warning has gone out across the city, as the dust has made visibility terrible, and the winds carrying this reddish dust are as high as 60km/h and expected to get even worse.
Uh, that's just crazy.
