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Australian weather: Antarctic cold front to 'steamroll' NSW, Victoria

Parts of Australia’s south including NSW are in for a cold snap with damaging winds, hail and possible snow ahead of the weekend.

South Australia and NSW have already been hit by a series of cold fronts.

Adelaide’s suburb of Morphett Vale is believed to have been hit by a tornado caused by one of the fronts on Tuesday night.

A woman struggles with the wind and rain in Sydney, Australia.
A Sydney woman struggles with the wind and rain. Source: Getty Images

Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino said another cold front would cross the southeast corner between Thursday and Saturday.

“This front will cause more damaging winds, showers, hail and snow,” Mr Domensino said.

“One of the most impressive features of this front will be a pool of cold polar air in its wake.

“Temperatures should reach low enough for snow to reach about 400 to 500 metres elevation in Tasmania, Victoria and southern NSW on Friday and Saturday.”

Inland Tasmania including Liawenee, which earlier this month plummeted to -14.2 degrees, Lake St Clair and New Pelion Hut are all forecast to receive snow.

Parts of Tasmania received snowfall for the first time in 40 years just recently.

Mr Domensino added as this cold air mass moved north, snow would also “blanket” parts of Central NSW from late Friday into Saturday “possibly falling to about 600 metres” with “about 10 centimetres”.

Snow could also fall in Northern NSW, he said.

A cold front is seen in a satellite image approaching southern Australia.
The cold air mass can be seen approaching Australia. Source: NASA via Bureau of Meteorology

‘Steamrolling straight towards us’

Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narromore told Channel Nine’s Today show the system was “very cold” and “straight off Antarctica”.

“[It] probably left Antarctica 36 hours ago and is steamrolling straight towards us,” he said.

He added snowfall in NSW and the ACT was likely for elevated suburbs of Canberra through Orange, Oberon, the Blue Mountains, Barrington Tops and possibly Armidale.

Canberra is in for a chilly spell and will end the week with a high of 8 on Friday and a low of 2.

The city will plummet to a low of 0 Saturday and -1 Sunday with highs of 7 and 11 respectively.

A view of the National Arboretum's snowfall in Canberra, Australia in July 2016.
Snowfall at Canberra's National Arboretum's in July 2016. Source: Getty Images, file

Barrington Tops is forecast for snowfall above 1300 metres on Friday and 1000 metres on Saturday. It could drop to a low of 0C on Sunday, following lows of 1 on Friday and Saturday. Expect highs between 3 and 5.

Goulburn could also receive snow on Saturday as the temperature hits a low of 1 and high of 6.

Mr Narramore said Victorians could see snow in Dandenong and Mount Macedon.

Dandenong’s forecast for lows of about 5 to 6, ending the week with highs of about 12. Rainfall is also forecast with 2 to 5mm on Friday and Sunday, and 10-15mm on Saturday.

NSW set for wild winds

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Rebecca Kamitakahara told the ABC the front would also bring wild winds to NSW.

Sydneysiders can breathe a sigh of relief as they won’t feel the brunt of the winds.

BoM has issued a warning for areas including Maitland, Wollongong, Nowra, Bowral, Katoomba and Goulburn, with wind speeds averaging 60 to 70 km/h and gusts in excess of 90 km/h on Thursday.

The gusts should ease in the afternoon.

"With the quite windy conditions we are expecting, it is going to make for quite a significant windchill factor," Ms Kamitakahara said.

Newcastle was belted by winds of about 70km/h just after midnight. Temperatures were sitting about 11C at 6am, with it expected to hit a max of 19 on Thursday.

Temperatures across Friday and weekend will be a bit chillier with lows of about 6 to 7 and highs of about 17 to 18.

Ulladulla can expect slightly cooler temperatures between 8 and 16 from Friday across the weekend.

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