IT WAS spectacular and it was quick, and it was Tamworth's turn on Thursday as a wild dust storm coated the town in orange.
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Strong winds could be seen picking up the dust outside of town, as it grew, encroaching on the city like a huge orange wall, about 3.30pm.
At Tamworth Airport, passengers on an incoming QantasLink flight reportedly sat on the tarmac for 20 minutes after the wild weather and accompanying thunderstorm saw the terminal lose power.
At the Tamworth racecourse, the race meet was delayed by about half-an-hour as visibility was reduced to only a few metres of the track.
Locals and visitors alike whipped out their iPhones and their cameras, plastering the orange glow onto sites like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. For just a short while, it was the weather being talked about, and not the music.
Country music revellers in Peel and Fitzroy Streets could only stop and admire the red glow as a darkness akin to night moved over Tamworth.
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In the CBD, without headlights, cars only became visible from about 20m away, and buildings could only be seen if you were pretty much standing directly in front of them.
And then, all of a sudden, it was over.
The thunderstorm that followed delivered more than 4mm of rain at Tamworth Airport, and saw the temperature drop by almost eight degrees. The only thing left behind, was the remnants of the dust.
The dust moved further south towards the hunter, blowing over Muswellbrook towards the coast.
It's the season of wild weather with fierce storm, hail stones, massive bushfires, scorching temperatures and dust storms lashing NSW.