Huge dust storm sweeps north-west Queensland as wi...
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A colossal dust storm rolled through communities in north-west Queensland yesterday as wind speeds reached up to 109 kilometres per hour.
The storm swept through the communities of Mount Isa, Boulia, Dajarra and Urandangi.
"It's the biggest one I've seen in eight years," said long-time Boulia resident Leaim Shaw.
"I hope no-one left a window open. The clean-up would not be fun!" local Boulia woman Amy Woodhouse said.
Meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology Helen Kirkup attributed the dust to a line of several thunderstorms in the region.
"What happened yesterday is we had a long line of storms stretching across about 100 kilometres. Any thunderstorm puts out a cold air outflow.
"Because we had a line of storms we had a gust front of all these cold air outflows working together. So residents would have experienced the dust storm, and then thunderstorms following that," she said.
The dust storm swept through the region ahead of thunderstorms.(Supplied: Tilli Groen)The strongest wind gust was 109kph, recorded at The Monument near Urandangi.
Ms Kirkup said the region could expect "a lot more dust storms this summer."
Posted 19 Dec 202119 Dec 2021Sun 19 Dec 2021 at 10:39pm, updated 19 Dec 202119 Dec 2021Sun 19 Dec 2021 at 11:08pm