ARJUN RAMACHANDRAN

September 23, 2009 – 7:31AM

Sydneysiders have woken to a red haze unlike anything seen before by residents or weather experts, as the sun struggles to pierce a thick blanket of dust cloaking the city this morning.

Callers have flooded talkback radio, others hit social networking sites and scores emailed Fairfax news website smh.com.au as Sydney residents expressed their amazement at this morning’s conditions.

“It’s just red, red, red as far as you can see,” one caller at the Anzac Bridge told Radio 2GB.

“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,” Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Jane Golding said.

“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.”

The lifted dust was carried by the winds into Sydney.

“I’ve not seen anything like this before,” she said.

The reddish haze was expected to fade as the sun got higher in the sky, Ms Golding said, but it was not known what would happen to the dust.

“This is such an infrequent event … it’s hard to say when the dust will stop.”

The dust has caused havoc with the city’s transport system this morning.

All citybound lanes on the M5 East tunnel were closed because of dust in the tunnel, while flights at Sydney Airport are delayed as a result of the “strong winds and dust haze”.

Sydney’s ferries were also suspended due to poor visibility on harbour.

The RTA issued a warning urging drivers to exercise caution and reduce speed due to “significant dust over the city affecting visibility”.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning across the state because of widespread damaging winds, which are expected to increase in force across Sydney this morning.

“It’s been close to 60km/h already this morning … it’s just a matter of time before it gets stronger,” Ms Golding said.

Wind speeds this morning were expected to average over 65km/h, but there would be gusts in excess of 100 km/h, the bureau said.

The winds would gradually ease over the afternoon and evening, Ms Golding said.

The winds were being whipped up by a cold front that passed through the state yesterday, and a deep low pressure trough over Victoria.

Temperatures were this morning in the low 20s and were expected to remain that way for the rest of the day, Ms Golding said.

Last night, large hailstones fell in parts of Goulburn and Wagga, while wind gusts exceeded 90km/h, the bureau said. A 109km/h gust was reported at Moss Vale.

The NSW State Emergency Service received about 175 calls for help from residents of Crookwell, near Goulburn, as a result of fallen trees and damaged roofs, a spokeswoman said.

Despite sunrise being at 5.43am, the city was still shrouded in a dark reddish haze at 7am this morning.

Many residents took to social networking sites, with Sydney one of the top 10 topics on Twitter this morning.

The Ambulance Service of NSW said it had experienced an increase in calls from asthma sufferers as a result of the dust haze.