Weather News

Dust storm makes its way west

The weather bureau says the second dust storm this week has begun moving across south-west Queensland.

The latest storm began in South Australia and is blowing dust across north-west New South Wales.

Senior forecaster Ben Annals says visibility in Broken Hill has been cut to less than one kilometre.

He says it is not expected to be as bad as Wednesday's storm.

"We would expect that we'd be seeing reduced visibility due to that dust coming into the Channel country, if not already, then very soon," he said.

"We have had some reports unofficially of there being dust around those regions already."

On Wednesday, Sydney awoke to an eerie red dawn after strong north-westerly winds dumped thousands of tonnes of dust on the harbour city, the Hunter Valley, Wollongong and the state's west.

Hours later the dust cleared from Sydney and arrived in Brisbane, hampering firefighting efforts in southern

Queensland by temporarily grounding water bombing helicopters.

The poor visibility hampered transport across the affected regions, slowed traffic and caused long delays at airports.

Emergency services received hundreds of phone calls from people with breathing difficulties.For many, the clean-up continues.

- ABC

© ABC 2009

More breaking news

ABC News
Sydney Morning Herald
National Nine News
News Limited

St George levee holds as river creeps higher

14:59 EDT A makeshift levee is holding in the southern Queensland town of St George as floodwaters continue to slowly rise.