Large dust storms that swept across western parts of NSW last week may stir again this week, and may even reach Sydney as winds pick up and temperatures rise ahead of a cold front.

Regions of south-western NSW had their crops "sand-blasted" as swirling winds picked up soil off increasingly barren hills, said Andy Gorman, who runs a property near Balranald.

Conditions are so dry most of the winter crop in the area had failed to germinate and those stalks that did suffered badly in the winds.

While dust storms are not unknown in his region, "they are very rare at this time of year", Mr Gorman said. "There's no ground cover at all."

His rain gauge had collected barely 50 millimetres so far this year, considerably less than half the normal amount.

Mr Gorman's lamb, beef and wheat property, "Meilman", that has been in his family almost a century, is better off than many others after a couple of good recent years left them enough fodder to provide their animals with supplementary feeding.

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"We're only just starting to feel the full force of it all," he said, with the drought now "rolling out of the north".

"Things don't look good for this spring and summer," he added.

Gabrielle Woodhouse, a duty forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology, said most of NSW can expect another dry week, with the prospect of elevated fire risks as dry conditions and strengthening winds combine.

A huge high pressure ridge is set up over the continent, leaving skies "pretty clear for much of Australia", she said, and it will remain fairly stationary for the next week.

Temperatures in Sydney will slowly increase until Wednesday before cooling off. The city on Wednesday could again reach 25 degrees, or about 7 degrees above the August average.

Most of the dust NSW is generated from south-western Queensland and South Australia, both of which are particularly dry - while all of NSW was declared in drought last week.

While it is too early to predict anything like the big dust storm that hit Sydney in September 2009, Wednesday's winds could be a forecast of a dusty spring to come.

"It's hit or miss as to how much dust we will see through NSW because of where the winds will be able to pick the dust up from," Ms Woodhouse said.

The front moving across the southern parts of the state on Wednesday and Thursday should bring only a few showers to the south-west slopes and some snow to alpine areas.

"Rainfall [will] not be huge totals, which is not nice for the farmers," Ms Woodhouse said.