Video: Incredible pics of huge orange dust storm in Australia
Incredible pictures of an enormous wall of dust hitting Australia's west coast have been captured by tugboat workers and plane passengers.
The red sand and dust storm headed towards the town of Onslow in north-western Australia, after being picked up by winds in the Indian Ocean.
Tugboat worker Brett Martin, who managed to capture some shots of the tsunami of sand, said visibility was reduced to 100 metres, and the swell rose to two metres, according to the Daily Mail.
Brett, who was working west of False Island when the storm passed over, told the West Australian: "We were steaming along in the boat just before sunset and the storm was casually building in the distance, then it got faster and faster and it went from glass to about 40 knots in two minutes.
"It was like a big dust storm under a thunderhead, there was a lot of lightning but not a lot of rain.
"I've never seen anything like it. It was pretty special and it was definitely an eerie feeling."
Speaking to the NZ Herald, Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Austen Watkins said the phenomenon was created as wind and rain caused the thunderstorm to dump sand and dust it had picked while passing over the coastal town of Onslow on its way out to the Indian Ocean.
The phenomenon is known as a "haboob" by meteorologists.
Residents of Onslow are now preparing themselves for Tropical Cyclone Narelle to hit; but Bureau of Meterology manager of climate services Glenn Cook said the dust storm was not directly related to the cyclone because the centre of Narelle was hundreds of miles away.
However, he told The Australian, the storm was in a cloud band related to thunder storm activity due to the cyclone's presence.
Tropical Cyclone Narelle is carrying wind gusts up to 250kmh at its centre and, while the north west is bracing itself for that, terrifying bush fires have been causing chaos and destruction in southeastern Australia after unprecedented high temperature and strong winds.
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