Strong winds across parts of NSW have set the scene for a day of incredibly high fire danger and coated many towns in thick, red dust.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for vigorous winds over Sydney, the Illawarra, the Central Coast and parts of the Southern and Central Tablelands and Hunter.

At 4.35am the Wollongong suburb of Bellambi recorded gusts of 102 kilometres per hour.

There are 50 fires burning across the state, 23 uncontained, which the Rural Fire Service (RFS) are working to stay on top of as conditions deteriorate this afternoon.

"There is a chance that the aircraft will not be able to take to the skies … but we will keep flying until it is not safe to do so," RFS spokesperson Anthony Clark said.

Those winds churned up dust in the dry, drought-ravaged west, with towns like Broken Hill, Dubbo and Condobolin turning red.

One Broken Hill family were forced to eat dinner under a bedsheet.

"Within three minutes the mashed potato was turning red from the dust … that's how thick it was. Inside the house," Rhonda Griffin said.

Orange skies in Nyngan, north-west of Dubbo. ( Facebook: Hails Woodlock )

Many farmers say the frequent dust storms over the last couple of months has completely stripped them of topsoil.

"It's so sad, everyone needs rain, not dust storms," Joyce Mostyn from Wilcannia said.

"We are 40 kilometres out west of Dubbo … and we could almost build a sandcastle (dust castle) on our back veranda … our cars are always almost permanently orange from all the dust storms," Natalie Birch from Narromine said.

The dust made its way to Sydney overnight, with gusts of up to 74 kilometres an hour at Fort Denison, and many have woken to dust-coated cars.

Extreme overnight winds in Sydney brought dust in from the west. ( Facebook: Stephen Davey )

"The carwashes are busy this morning," Stephen Davey from Wetherill Park said.

Winds are expected to gradually ease across the state overnight into Sunday morning.

According to the BOM, there is a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon but there is little chance of rain.