Stifling dust bad omen for future

CANBERRA - The vast dust clouds driven by violent storms that turned the skies of New South Wales and Queensland red yesterday may be a harbinger of things to come.
Weather forecasters are predicting another storm front for tomorrow, and warn that an emerging El Nino and land dehydrated by a decade of drought could produce a series of storms ripping topsoil from Australia's fragile interior.
There have already been three large dust storms in the past three weeks in the region around South Australia's vast Lake Eyre - where much of yesterday's dust was generated - and last week clouds of granulated red earth were blown to New Zealand.

Image: Sydney's Luna Park is bathed in an orange glow as a giant cloud of red dust blows through New South Wales. Photo / Getty Images