Dust storms lash parts of Queensland, heatwave for...

Eerie photos have captured a wall of dust approaching rural towns in Queensland as wild storms lashed state’s central west.

Temperatures also hit 42C-plus as massive dark clouds of dust rolled over the state’s central western region on Sunday.

They brought ferocious winds, with one fierce gust of 109km/h recorded at The Monument, south of Mt Isa.

Boulia was smashed by a wall of dust, with the local council Boulia Shire capturing the scary moment in images.

Bureau of Meterology’s Helen Kirkup said the temperature plummeted 10C in ten minutes after the storms passed through.

She said they were caused by a cold front, which saw a whole line of storms 150km across moving southwest.

“It was really hot and the the structure of the storms was the kind of structure that allows some really strong down draft winds to come out of them,” Ms Kirkup said.

“They all developed close together in a line and all kind of traveled through the southwest.

“The strength of the winds that came through meant it was strong enough to pick up a fair bit of dust and ran it straight over a few towns.”

The regional town 400km west of Winton also dealt with major heat on Sunday, with the mercury climbing to 42.2C.

Ms Kirkup said the heat was here to stay, with another scorcher forecast for Christmas Day.

It is expected to get to 43C at Birdsville on Friday, 38C at Goondiwindi on Monday and Tuesday, and 35C in Ipswich on Wednesday.

Brisbane will get to 32C over the next two days before dropping to 28C on Christmas Day.

She said Sunday’s storm trough would move across to the Darling Downs and gold Coast areas, where showers and thunderstorms were forecast for Friday and Saturday.