David Grellman, a farmer between Wee Waa and Burren Junction, found himself confused on Thursday.
He had just had a welcome 10 millimetres of rain in a storm, when another front came over and the sun disappeared.
“I was a bit confused with what was happening. It basically blackened the sky out,” he said.
“My parents who are from West Wyalong say we haven’t had a real dust storm, because they get some good ones down there.
“But I think we have now.”
He said it has been so extremely dry out his way the red gum trees were dying, and any rain they had received tended to just sit on the surface and evaporate in the hot windy weather that seemed to be characteristic of this summer so far.
Mr Grellman said the main front of the storm was amazing to watch. The smaller storm that passed through just prior had washed the sky clean, so the second storm had a very distinctive front.
“It started off with dust and a bit of rain, but ended up just like mud,” he said.
When he spoke to The Land on Friday, he was fixing his generator, the winds having knocked out the power supply somewhere.
He said at that stage he had so far been 27 hours without power and needed to get the fridge and freezers going again.
The dust storm hit Beechworth at 2.45pm and lasted about half an hour, dumping 30mm of rain. It had a bit of wind, but he said it didn’t do too much damage.
Beechworth is one of two farms Mr Grellman runs with his wife, Sharon, a teacher in Wee Waa. Beecworth is just over 200 hectares and their other farm, Sandhurst, which is closer to Pilliga, is a bit over 1100ha.
Meanwhile, James Nalder, at Coonamble, who had only received 5mm of rain the same day in another equally thick dust storm, but with more wind damage, reported he got 45mm on Thursday night, easing some of the frustration with the weather and what had been forecast.
Related reading: Tullamore flash flood and Coonamble dust storm: Photos
Like a lot of farmers, Mr Nalder will be watching the forecast for later next week when there’s a chance of some follow-up rain.
At this stage, the outlook is for a possible thunderstorm for Burren Junction on Thursday and a chance of showers for Coonamble on the same day.
