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Weather: Australia set to shiver as triple whammy cold fronts arrive

Southeast Australia will be battered with one icy blast after another as meteorologists warns of a “conveyor belt of cold fronts closing in.”

The start of the triple whammy is set to blow in on Thursday with a persistent spell of blustery, cold and wet conditions due to hit Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra and NSW.

“Those cold fronts coming through will bring strong winds as well as persistent showers across the southwest of Australia,” Andrew Schmidt, Meteorologist at Weatherzone, told Yahoo News Australia.

“There will [then] be just a brief period of relatively calm weather, with a high pressure building in the west at the moment, but we also do see another cold front pushing through late tomorrow.

A weather map of Australia
Southern Australia will be belted by three consecutive cold fronts by Monday. Source: Weatherzone

“So those strong winds will linger particularly over Victoria and Tasmania on Friday and even into Saturday morning.

While conditions are expected to have calmed down by Sunday, with that higher pressure system pushing through, a third cold front is forecast to arrive on Monday.

Tasmania in the eye of the cold front

While Thursday’s cold front is due to impact the entirety of coastal South Australia and southern Victoria, Tasmanians are set to cop the worst of it.

“In particular western Tasmania will probably see the heaviest rainfall of all the states today,” Mr Schmidt said.

With the chance of a thunderstorm in Strahan on Thursday, up to 20 millimetres of rain is expected to fall while hail is also on the cards as temperatures drop to just six degrees overnight.

Showers across southern Australia are predicted to ease off Friday, but western Tasmania is still likely to receive the heaviest falls with up to 25mm set to drench Strahan.

“On Monday, again western Tasmania will see those heaviest falls,” Mr Schmidt said.

A snowy mountain in Tasmania
Tasmania is set to feel the brunt of the weather systems. Source: Getty

NSW set to be hit next week

While Sydney will duck the worst of the weather this weekend, with temps set to reach 22 degrees on Thursday and again on Monday, the state won’t escape unscathed.

“Moving further forward an associated trough that extends down from the north will connect up with that cold front,” Mr Schmidt explained.

“So that will bring some showers to eastern parts of NSW on Tuesday and Wednesday.”

The rain will also reach the harbour city which is inches away from beating its highest annual rainfall on record.

“Definitely Tuesday and Wednesday look like the most likely days to see those kind of heavier substantial showers,” the meteorologist said.

“These showers that will come in will bring Sydney closer [to its record] but I don't think it will be enough to exceed it, but definitely moving closer to that annual rainfall record.”

More than 1,972mm of rain has fallen since the start of the year, just 222mm off the 1950 record.

A car in the snow (left) and a boy throws a snowball (right)
Weatherzone says snowfall in parts of the country will be the heaviest it has been since the start of June. Source: AAP

First major snow since June

Next week’s weather system is set to bring even chillier weather to south Australia.

“With this cold front that pushes through on Monday, that’s bringing up quite a cold pool of air with it,” Mr Schmidt said.

“Snow is expected to fall down to about 800 to 600 metres during that period so that kind of means we could maybe see a couple of snow flurries around the Canberra area and in Orange.”

Temperatures will drop to -1C in Australia’s capital on Sunday with the forecast low to hang around well into next week.

In Orange, the celsius will plummet to -2C on Monday.

“At this stage snow looks likely to penetrate a fair way north next Monday and Tuesday,” accoring to Weatherzone, “with the potential for good snowfalls on the Central Tablelands and Blue Mountains of the type which we haven’t seen this winter since the first few days of June.”

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