A severe dust storm spread across parts of regional NSW on Tuesday afternoon, as large areas of NSW were hit heavy rainfall and strong winds that swept over the state.
Large parts of the Riverina area, including Griffith and nearby Barellan, were hit by a huge dust storm just after lunch that turned the skies deep red.
Deputy Prime Minister McCormack was in Ariah Park, a small town 35 kilometres west of Temora in regional NSW, and tweeted an image of the approaching dust storm.
But unlike the November storm that hit Sydney, the dust storm that hit regional areas on Tuesday did not hit the metropolitan area.
Thunderstorm hits parts of NSW
At just after 7:00pm the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) issued a thunderstorm warning, predicting the severe thunderstorms would move east over Wollongong and into western Sydney.
It cancelled the warning just before 9:00pm.
Bega reported 100 kilometre per hour wind gusts during the thunderstorm.
Leading the rainfall figures was Fitzroy Falls in the Southern Highlands region which recorded 37mm of rainfall in the 30 minutes to 7:00pm.
There were no reports of major damage.
