15/04/2009: A wall of dust is making its way north through New South Wales, after blanketing Canberra earlier this afternoon, according to weatherzone.com.au.

The dust is being whipped up by strong winds ahead of a cold front crossing southeast Australia. Gusts in excess of 90km/hr have been reported from the Snowy Mountains.

The dust is likely to reach Sydney over the next couple of hours, causing visibilities to drop. Visibility readings of less than two kilometres were reported from Canberra and other locations in southeast New South Wales earlier in the afternoon.

"The front crossing southeast Australia today has been associated with particularly severe winds. Earlier this morning, wind gusts in excess of 130km/hr wreaked havoc across Victoria and Tasmania," weatherzone.com.au meteorologist Matt Pearce said.

"The strong westerly winds ahead of the front have picked up large quantities of dust from southwest New South Wales, a region that has seen minimal rainfall in recent months."

It was a very warm day ahead of the front. Sydney reached a top of 29.3 degrees, the warmest day in April for three years.

"The winds will drop off rapidly overnight tonight as the cold front moves out into the Tasman Sea. After a couple of milder days, we will then enter a prolonged showery spell across eastern New South Wales from the weekend onwards," Pearce said.

Media Inquiries:

Matt Pearce
media@weatherzone.com.au
02 9965 9236

About Weatherzone:

Weatherzone is Australia's most popular commercial meteorological resource, supplying weather information to most of Australia's major television broadcasters and websites. www.weatherzone.com.au has been developed by a team of world class meteorologists and features user friendly, up-to-the minute access to weather across the country.