Massive red dust storm sweeps over New South Wales

Power was knocked out to thousands of homes as huge red dust clouds swept across parts of New South Wales.

This image was taken on about 1km from the town of Ariah Park at about 1:30pm Tuesday. Picture: Aaron Burnett

A major dust storm swept over parts of New South Wales on Tuesday afternoon, with hundreds of homes losing power as the incredible red dust clouds engulfed Riverina towns.

Temora, Ariah Park and Barellan were hit by the huge clouds that turned the skies a deep red.

The cause of the Mars-like conditions was a strong thunderstorm, a spokeswoman from the Bureau of Meteorology said.

“It was a thunderstorm and the strong winds, generated from it, lifted the dust off the ground and blew it around,” she said.

At the peak of the power outages more than 5,000 homes had their supply cut, but by last night only a small number were still without power.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack captured this scene at Ariah Park in central NSW

Towns were blanketed in dust. Picture: Wendy Holland

Aaron Burnett told The Daily Telegraph the storm was over as quickly as it began.

“It rolled in as a big cloud of dust and wind. Everything picked up for a minute and all of a sudden it was gone,” he said.

“It was red dust, like a typical country door red.”

Deputy Prime Minister McCormack was in Ariah Park, a small town 35 kilometres west of Temora, and tweeted an image of the dust storm.

A thunderstorm warning from the BOM, concerning Wollongong, was lifted about 9pm.