The Historic Burnima Estate in Bombala was one of the Snowy Mountains sites that were turned white. Photo: Historic Burnima Estate Facebook.
If you reckon it feels a bit more like winter, you aren’t alone.
Parts of southern NSW and the ACT woke to a taste of winter on Thursday morning (7 May), with towns across the Snowy Mountains receiving snowfall.
At Thredbo, a resort spokesperson said the mercury was below zero overnight.
“Temps dropped to a chilly -6.4 [degrees Celsius] this morning, the village rooftops are dusted in white and the snow cams are already looking very wintery,” they wrote on social media.
“Opening weekend is getting closer, and Mother Nature is giving us a taste of what’s to come – let’s GO!”
Weatherzone also declared Thredbo as home to Australia’s lowest overnight minimum temperature.
Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) community information officer Daniel Hayes said the snow followed a cold front moving through southern Australia.
“There were a few places pushed it up a bit higher into that 10 to 15 centimetre range, but most people probably got around about 5 centimetres,” he said of the snowfall received.
“Through the actual resorts, they’ve all got at least some coverage of snow.”
But it doesn’t look like there’ll be more of the white stuff on the cards falling today – with falls already easing as conditions start to warm a tad.
He said that while areas down to about 700 to 800 metres did see some snowfall (pointing to lucky parts of the ACT and the Snowies), it hadn’t been “particularly thick” or “widespread”.
“This wasn’t a particularly wet system coming through. It wasn’t tapping into a large amount of moisture.
“It was a very cold, dry system … [It has been] struggling to get a lot of moisture to generate heavy rainfall or snow at this point.”
Snow has been reported at places as low as 800 metres. Photo: Adaminaby Fuel Stop – Snowy Mountains Facebook.
Mr Hayes said the winter-like conditions were set to last into Friday (8 May), before easing into early next week.
“The main thing that we’re looking at now is the fact that we’re going to see the winds pick up.
“We’ve got an upper level system moving in behind that cold front. It’s going to reinforce that system and really start to see a low-pressure system off the coast develop and deepen and start to spin some of those stronger winds up.”
In an alert issued today, the BoM predicted wild winds could strike overnight and into tomorrow (8 May).
“A vigorous south-westerly airstream will develop later this evening over the south-east of the state in the wake of a cold front moving out into the Tasman Sea,” it outlined.
Conditions are expected to ease by Friday afternoon. Image: Bureau of Meteorology.
Damaging south-westerly winds averaging 60 to 70 km/h with peak gusts up to 100 km/h could develop across the Snowy Mountains and parts of the South Coast.
There could be peak gusts up to 100 km/h.
Areas above 1900 metres could average 80 to 90 km/h, with peak gusts up to 110 km/h possible.
The BoM also warns there could be blizzard conditions for areas of the Snowy Mountains above 1500m this evening and early on Friday morning.
“The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service recommends that back country travel be postponed until conditions improve.”
Forecast website SnowWatch also predicts that Perisher, Charlotte Pass and Thredbo will all receive up to 7 centimetres of snow over the next 15 days, while Selwyn is predicted to receive 5 centimetres.
Original Article published by Claire Sams on About Regional.
