What’s a brick wind?

Hi toomuch, I've found it! ?

Brickfielder
A summer wind in southeastern Australia that brings hot air from the outback to the cooler regions.
Named either for the red dust it used to spread over Sydney from local brickworks, or the fact that it turned the soil as hard as bricks.

Thanks Buffy, that sounds horrible - but they were talking about an area of outer London where there weren’t brickfields. It’s definitely a “c” not an “s” but maybe she meant “brisk wind” - that would be simpler!

Ah! Maybe that's it, brisk wind!
It's quite a coincidence that there is actually a Brickfielder wind though. ?

May be personally made up name for those winds that bring in the red sand-filled winds from the Sahara that coat cars and windowshields with a red sandy deposit. DH has a four letter word to describe those winds when he has to wash all the car windows to celar them of the red sandy deposit every day.

From what I can gather from 30 mins research, a 'brick wind' is one that is generated between buildings.

In July 1902 the building was occupied by the Sonoma Wine and Brandy company when a fire broke out. A brick wind was blowing threatening to spread the fire to other buildings.

There are several other references contained in some of the old, out-of-print books Google is putting online.

Buffybee, I've lived in south east Aust all my life and have never heard the term 'brick wind'. It may be local to that Sydney area with a brick works.

We certainly have the hot, north winds in summer that sweep down the hot dry interior of Australia bringing very hot, dry weather to the south east in particular.. They then meet the southerly winds coming up from the Great Southern Ocean and Antarctica colliding along the south east coast and bringing dramatic drops in temperature, sometimes 20 or even 30 degrees C in 15 minutes. With the Australian talent for understatement it's known as 'The Change'. Once I stood outside my house as The Change came through and for a brief moment I was hot in my north facing front and cold on my south facing back. It was incredibly weird and I've only ever experienced once.

This is why we have all the old jokes about Melbourne weather such as four seasons on one day and if you don't like the weather wait a minute.