Front brings dust from the west

                The residents of Griffith rushed to seal their houses at dusk yesterday as a fierce
                 dust storm raced into the town with warning, propelled by winds of up to 90
                 kilkometres an hour. The dust cloud moved across the state and into Sydney
                 today. Photo: Denis Couch
 

                 Dust, not rain, descended on NSW today as a cold front swept the state. Instead of much wished-for rainfall,
                 the cold front originating in western NSW yesterday picked up millions of tiny soil particles and created a
                 dense dust cloud, the Bureau of Meteorology said today.

                 As the front headed eastwards today, dust enveloped Dubbo, Orange, Nowra, Sydney and the Blue
                 Mountains.

                 At Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, visibility was reduced to as little as 200m, the bureau spokesman said.

                 "We had a very, very strong cold front come across NSW yesterday and that picked up a lot of dust in
                 western parts of NSW," he said.

                 "That cold front has now moved and deposited dust in eastern parts of the state."

                 A spokeswoman for NSW Agriculture said the dust storm would scour valuable top soil from dry farms.

                 Today's dust cloud was made worse by significant cloud cover.

                 The cloud was expected to hover over eastern NSW for hours until dissipated by strong winds and sun, the
                 bureau spokesman said.

                 "We had a similar (dust cloud) a couple of weeks ago. It is very dry over the inland so we do seem to get
                 these dust storms, but it is a rare event," he said.

                 Robyn Mossman, president of the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, said she had noticed an unusual
                 atmosphere outside.

                 "I have been inside working in my office but I just went outside and said to my husband 'this is funny, it is not
                 mist, you can't smell smoke, yet you can see dust'," she said.

                 The NSW Department of Health said it had not issued a health warning about the dust but was keeping a close
                 eye on the situation.

                 Thunderstorms have broken out in Dorrigo, west of Coffs Harbour, bringing intense localised rain relief but
                 also increased risk of lightning strikes, the bureau spokesman said.

                 As these spread south, they may affect Sydney.

                 "We are expecting thunderstorms over eastern NSW that are expected to extend along the coast," he said.

                 AAP