A massive dust storm has given travellers in a caravan park at Wilcannia, near Broken Hill in Outback New South Wales the scare of their lives.
Grey nomads Anne and Lindsay Richardson were terrified the storm and sand cloud would simply lift their caravan up.
“I looked out the window and went ‘What’s that?’ We just didn’t know what was going to happen,” Mrs Richardson told nine.com.au. “We couldn’t believe it.”
While the couple’s car and caravan survived intact, some people on their site suffered minor damage.
The couple, who are travelling from the Sunshine Coast to Western Australia, managed to take a couple of pictures before getting inside their caravan and battening down the hatches. They had been was stifling in 40-degree heat.
According to 9News, the sand cloud was approximately 50 metres high as it blew through Katalpa Station, north of Broken Hill, and White Cliffs.
Dust storms become more likely across New South Wales in spring during drought years. This is because seasonal thunderstorms passing over the state whip up dry topsoil and carry it across the barren landscape.
New South Wales has just experienced its fourth driest January to October since records began in 1900 and for the Murray-Darling Basin, it was the third driest such period on record.
According to 9News, the year-to-date root-zone soil moisture, which refers to the amount of moisture in the top one metre of the soil profile, is in the lowest 1% of historical records for large swathes of NSW up to this point of the year.
And Anne and Lindsay will have a reminder of the event for years to come – the dust will still be in their van for ever. Could be a frightening experience for the first time.
We got caught in a beauty of a dust storm last year while caretaking a caravan park on the outskirts of town, 3 hours of horendous wind and We didnt even have time to put the awning down, so the two of us in 50 deg heat hanging on to awning for dear life, thankfully only very minor easily fixed problems, was very scary.
Having been born in B.Hill I can remember dust storms where we were not allowed to leave school until they had past. One I remember we did not get out until after 5-30 and it was not the best walking home