On Sunday evening, before a huge band of thunderstorms crossed the region, winds whipped up plenty of dust and topsoil from the western Riverina plains and took it east – along with much of the hope for a break in the season.

In the third significant dust storm event in eight weeks, the area south of the Murrumbidgee River was awash with dust before the storms turned it to mud with between five and 15 millimetres of rain.

The small rainfall totals were little consolation for landholders now facing another cool change headed by a front with strong winds and dust storms predicted for the end of the week – along with rainfall of a paltry 20mm.

It was in stark contrast to the bucketing received by some northern districts earlier this week, with some Northern Tablelands graziers scoring 100mm or more.

* See the full story in this week's The Land.