Sadly, the word ‘apocalypse’ has been used to describe the situation in Australia all too often these past few weeks.

Sadder still, using the word is entirely justified.

There was some much-welcomed rain towards the end of last week, which offered a glimmer of good news amongst the destruction, but it could take generations for the country’s habitat to recover.

Some animals may never recover.

The latest alarming footage to come out of Australia shows a massive dust storm in central New South Wales (NSW), reports the Guardian:

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a series of severe thunderstorm warnings on Sunday evening for inland NSW with the associated winds generating massive dust clouds.

Videos posted to social media showed dust storms descending on Dubbo and nearby towns that were so thick they blocked out the sun.

That’s not an exaggeration:

Cape Town was subjected to some horrendous wind this past weekend, but I guess we’re still getting off lightly.

Whilst the heavy rain should help firefighters and authorities contain some of the blazes, it does bring with it a new set of problems, and won’t put out existing ones:

Widespread falls of between 10 and 30mm are expected, but some areas could see isolated totals of up to 80mm or 100mm.

The wet conditions could lead to flash flooding in some areas, but the weather bureau says rainfall is unlikely to put out remaining blazes…

Winds will shift and come more from the north and west midweek, bringing drier and warmer air on Wednesday and Thursday. “That means on both of those days we may end up seeing fire dangers increasing again and causing more problems for our fire agencies,” Barr said.

Australia just can’t catch a break, it seems.

[source:guardian]