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Griffith Weather:
GRIFFITH looked like it was facing Armageddon on Sunday when the area was swamped by a huge dust haze.Photo:
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WILD easterly winds battered the area over the last three days but Griffith is still waiting for a taste of the rain which lashed the coast.
While the surrounding areas of Darlington Point and Coleambally received rain, and so too did coastal areas, Griffith was swamped in a massive dust haze.
CSIRO senior technical officer David Smith said the weather was “bizarre”
but is expected to settle down in coming days.
“It was strange because normally when we get weather from the east we get rain or severe thunderstorms,” Mr Smith said.
“It is very unusual to get dust storms from the east.”
Mr Smith said the area was covered in a thick dust haze for around two hours on Sunday while other areas were being lashed with heavy rain. Other inland areas such as Trangie and Lightning Ridge received 34 millimetres and Cooma was bucketed on with 90 millimetres.
A slow-moving high is associated with current local weather conditions and also the Great Dividing Range breaking up storms.
“It seems a lot of the wet weather is being stopped by the range,” Mr Smith said.
“And the high over us is also keeping things dry.”
Even the state govern-ment has been paying strong attention to where the rain has fallen, with primary industries minister Ian Macdonald acknowledging the desperate need for inland falls.
“The rain has been good news for some of the catchment areas, however, most of the bush missed out,” Mr Macdonald said.
“We need widespread falls of more than 100 millimetres of soaking rain to ease the pain and get farmers on track for autumn and winter cropping seasons.
“Without good falls in the next three weeks, the number of farmers carting water to livestock is going to increase at an exponential rate.”
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