Just when western NSW thought it had seen its fair share of dust storms – more are on the way.
Unfortunately the thunderstorms predicted for inland NSW in the coming days won’t be bringing much rain. But you could instead expect dust storms.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) senior forecaster Jordan Notara said there was a trough inland, which could see storms developing from Parkes to Cobar and Tibooburra that would produce little rainfall in those areas.
“While storms are normally associated with good rainfall these storms expected in the coming days will only see a few millimetres,” Mr Notara said.
“They are quite isolated in nature.”
But he said the storms would be “kicking up the dust” so more dust storms were on the way.
He said the heatwave would continue inland until the weekend with the Riverina expected to see temperatures of 45 degree C by Friday.
Up until 3pm New Years Day, the hottest temperature was 42C recorded at Wilcannia and Tibooburra – 4C above the average of this time of the year.
The coldest temperature was recorded at Thredbo with 20C.
The latest dust storm predictions come after a tsunami of dust rolled into Milparinka, north of Broken Hill on Melbourne Cup Day.
It was then followed with another on New Years Eve where Katie McKid and her husband Rob Trepess from Outback Multi Purpose Merinos at “Locksley” Nyngan, were on their way to celebrations when a massive dust storm hit.
“We’ve had a coupe of dust storms but we have never seen anything like this,” Ms McKid said.
The dust storm lasted five minutes once it hit but there was still a dusty haze for 20km driving into Nyngan, Ms McKid said.
Unfortunately, Ms McKid said the storm only saw 2mm of rain in the gauge for the start of the new year.
“It’s been a tough year but we have managed pretty well,” she said.
The property received 40mm of rain in October – the exact time they were weaning lambs, which went straight onto the paddock.
“But it dried up again so we have gone back to feeding,” she said.
“Hopefully it’s a wetter 2019 but that’s not what the forecasters are saying.”