Temperatures to drop to zero as cold snap sweeps southern states
The first signs of winter are on the way with a cold front set to bring rain, hail and even snow to Australia’s south-eastern states.
The bitter air mass is due to reach south-western Victoria and parts of South Australia on Tuesday night, before moving across the southeast of the country over the course of Wednesday.
It will bring showers and, behind that rainfall band, potentially hail and snow, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Senior Forecaster Christie Johnson says it will be the first real cold outbreak of the season.
“While it will be really cold over the course of tomorrow, the coldest air actually comes up behind the front so it will be right over the top of us in a couple of days,” she said.
“We are looking at temps well below average so in some cases up to six degrees below the average for May, most likely on Friday and Saturday morning.”
“So a lot of places will have their coldest day of the year so far.”
Sydney temperature to drop to 10, Melbourne 7
While maximum temperatures may drop to around 13 to 15 degrees in Adelaide, Melbourne and Hobart over the later half of the week, Ms Johnson says the wind chill will push the ‘feels like’ temperature into the single digits.
The forecast is predicting lows of 7 degrees in Hobart and Melbourne on Friday morning, nine in Adelaide and 10 for Sydney, but it’ll be much colder inland.
First snow flurries of the year
Frost is expected to be felt throughout country Victoria and NSW, when the mercury plummets to just one or two degrees overnight on Friday.
Canberra is set for a chilly end to the week with temperatures to drop to zero in the early hours of Friday before reaching a maximum of 11 degrees that day.
While snow could fall as far down as 900 to 1,000 metres, taking in the elevated heights of Tasmania.
“We could see flurries on Mount Wellington,” Ms Johnson said, “as well as the eastern ranges of Victoria and the southern ranges of NSW. Those are probably the most likely places.”
More rain on the cards for east coast
After a sodden start to the year across the Eastern seaboard, more rain is on the way, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Around two to five millilitres is expected to fall inland this week, with around five to 15 on the coast and even up to 30 millimetres in more exposed areas of the coast and elevated regions.
There could also be some thunderstorms, with the potential to bring higher rainfall totals.
“It’s not a huge rainfall event, but there are areas across the region where the ground is already saturated,” Ms Johnson said, “so there could be some localised creek and river rises.
“We will be monitoring that.”
In Sydney, the rainfall is expected to hit late tomorrow, with two to eight millilitres likely to fall across the area as the front reaches the city.
Warmer weather ahead
While the country is set to shiver through the weekend, the cold snap isn’t expected to hang around.
“It looks like it’ll warm up a little bit by next Monday and Tuesday,” Ms Johnson said.
“There is warmth coming into Western Australia over the weekend and that will slowly spread across to the eastern states next week.”
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