Australian sky turns red ahead of approaching tropical cyclone

Western Australia woke to blood-red skies on Friday as a tropical cyclone that had already carved a path across much of Australia pushed closer, turning daylight in one coastal town into an unsettling scene.

Video captured the crimson glow hanging over Shark Bay Caravan Park in Denham, 831km north of Perth, as the unusual light spread across the area.

The owner of the holiday park said the conditions felt “incredibly eerie outside” and that dust had settled over everything.

“Not a lot of wind yet. Let’s hope we get enough rain to wash it all off. It’s an inside day for us, that’s for sure,” they said at the time.

Authorities said strong winds linked to Tropical Cyclone Narelle had swept iron-rich red soil high into the air, where it scattered sunlight and produced the striking deep red sky.

Narelle moved across Queensland in Australia’s north east and then through the Northern Territory after making landfall as a category four tropical cyclone on 20 March, before reaching Western Australia on Thursday as it continued tracking south.

By the time it arrived in Western Australia, the cyclone had travelled more than 5,700km.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the system first developed near the Solomon Islands, about 2,000km to the northeast of Australia.

It is relatively uncommon for a single tropical cyclone to impact Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

At its peak, Narelle’s destructive winds stretched 200-260km from the centre.

A growing body of research shows that, worldwide, tropical cyclones are intensifying and bringing heavier short-term and daily rainfall than they did in the past.

In the Australian region, cyclone numbers overall have fallen in recent decades, but those that do form are stronger and dump more rain.

Scientists expect that pattern to continue as global heating worsens.