Strong westerly winds cause dust haze across Brisbane and southeast Queensland

Strong westerly winds have seen Brisbane and parts of the southeast blanketed by a thick dust haze this morning. Wind gusts are expected to exceed 80km/h later today.

Brisbane has been blanketed by a dust haze this morning driven by strong westerly winds. Picture: Bureau of Meteorology

A dust haze has blanketed Brisbane today as strong wind gusts in excess of 60km/h are recorded across parts of southeast Queensland.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Peter Markworth said Gatton had seen wind gusts up to 61km/hour and winds in Brisbane reached 56 km/hour this morning.

“We’re expecting that to increase through the afternoon,” he said.

“They will be rare, but we could see wind gusts up to 80km/hour in the elevated areas … around the Scenic Rim for example.

“At this stage we are looking at very high fire dangers, but without the (high) temperatures, we’re not expecting them to get to severe.”

Mr Markworth said the dust haze reached Brisbane overnight and was expected to subside later this afternoon.

“It’s not particularly thick, visibility is around 10km is some areas,” he said.

“We should see it start to clear throughout the afternoon … we won’t see it disappear completely until the winds die down.”

Winds are expected to calm down overnight, before picking up slightly tomorrow.

“Generally seeing a downward trend as we go into next week,” Mr Markworth said.

In the Darling Downs, the wind chill has reduced temperatures up to eight degrees.

“Toowoomba is seeing 15.4C as the recorded temperature at the moment, but the apparent temperature is at 8.7C,”

“Wellcamp is 16.4 recorded temperature, but wind chill is reduced down to an apparent temperature of 7.5C.”