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Drought-ravaged parts of rural Australia have been hit by dust storms that threaten to drift over more heavily populated cities including Sydney, bringing a new element to the extreme weather that has dominated the country over summer. The vast clouds of thick red dust have smothered inland towns such as Dubbo in the country's most populous state, New South Wales, adding to the run of unusual weather that has disrupted the country since hundreds of bushfires broke out in September. In Canberra, the national capital, cricket ball-sized hail stones smashed car windows on Monday. Let us take a look at some of the images:
A person holds golfball-sized hail during a hailstorm at Manuka Oval in Canberra, Australia in this still image. (Reuters Photo) 
Golf ball-sized hail carpet a street after a hailstorm in Canberra, Australia. (Reuters Photo) -
The storms were forecast to hit Sydney late on Monday, prompting No. 2 airline Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd to cut some flights, the company said in an email. (Reuters Photo)
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A man and woman collect golfball-sized hail on the grounds of Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, after a storm battered the Australian capital. (AP Photo)
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Golfball-sized hail carpet the lawn and drift against the building of Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. (AP Photo)
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The storms were also expected to hit hundreds of kilometres of coastline to the city's south, the site of mass evacuations weeks earlier as fires destroyed homes and wiped out swathes of forest. (Reuters Photo)
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The storms lashing NSW and neighbouring Victoria state have interrupted a few days' respite from the high temperatures and dry winds that have fanned bushfires across an area one-third the size of Germany, killing 29 people and an estimated one billion native animals. (Reuters Photo)
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