Australia: Unusual haze engulfs Gold Goast - depth of mystery debated

Anna Caldwell
The Courier Mail
Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:39 UTC

Hazy... the salt spray at Main Beach, while conditions remain clear at Southport (inset)

A salty haze over parts of the Gold Coast this morning has dramatically reduced visibility in some areas - while others are perfectly clear.

Transport Department web cams show thick haze on the Gold Coast Highway at Main Beach, yet glorious sunshine and clear skies at further north at Southport's Smith Street.

But according to the Bureau of Meteorology it is nothing terribly out of the ordinary. The haze looks like a thick fog.

Bureau forecaster Mark Trenorden said the mist was a haze rather than a fog: "It has been formed because of the combination of salt spray in the air and the high humidity," Mr Trenorden said.

"It is also associated with a south easterly change coming through to cool things down. Those things combined create the salty haze. It is not unusual on the coast."

The south easterly change was expected to come through Brisbane this afternoon. "It will cool temperatures off a little," Mr Trenorden said.

Comment: The unusual appearance of the thick and localised haze received wide media coverage in Queensland. Some of the reader comments sent to The Courier Mail's website are interesting. Here are two of them...

Marko of South Brisbane

"I was at Surfers Paradise today and I saw some very unusual cloud conditions at about mid-day. It was a hot and windy blue sky day - which is not unusual. Small and isolated puffy clouds came in quickly from the sea, and swept past the top floors of the Coast towers. No other types of cloud were in the sky."

Gillian Lane of Southport

"Actually being on the Gold Coast, I can tell you that the hazy conditions were really quite remarkable and most certainly newsworthy. It was almost like cloud at ground level at Southport."