A vast dust storm that rolled 1800 kilometres across central Australia has been captured from space in amazing satellite images.

The “unbelievably long plume” of thick dust stretched from the heart of the country and out over the Indian Ocean, hundreds of kilometres off north-west Western Australia, on Sunday.

The remarkable event was captured from Japan’s Himawari weather satellite and shared by Weatherzone.

The airborne particles were still visible over the ocean on Monday.

The heaviest concentration of dust was centred over Western Australia’s Kimberley region, with lesser coverage over the Pilbara.

The plume extended over the Indian Ocean. Photo: Weatherzone

Weatherzone said the huge uplift of desert dust was caused by a trough which pushed well into northern WA over the weekend.

It was strengthened by a low-pressure system swirling near South Australia and a high-pressure ridge to the south.

“This fairly unusual summer pattern brought strong and gusty southerly winds all the way through the desert and off the Kimberley coast, kicking up dust as it rolled through,” its website said.

The dust storm was nearly 1800km long. Photo: Weatherzone

“An interesting side-effect of those southerly winds and airborne dust was that some of Australia’s most consistently hot places had a relatively cool day by their standards on Sunday.”

For example, Marble Bar in the Pilbara, was five degrees cooler than usual in December, reaching “only” 36.9 degrees on Sunday (compared to the usual 42.1 degrees).

Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley was 35.1 degrees – its coolest day so far in December 2023.

But the scorching temps will return by the weekend, with Marble Bar spiking back up to 45 degrees on Saturday.