Summer Snow falls on Australian towns

[Breaking News Breaking News]

January 18, 2010 - 4:19PM

Summer holidaymakers could be forgiven for thinking winter has come a few months early, with a cold snap bringing a light dusting of snow to some parts of NSW.

Southern NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia were hit by an unseasonable cold front on Monday, with temperatures plummeting to near zero in the Snowy Mountains.

Towns such as Thredbo, and Cooma in the NSW Southern Tablelands, reported a brief flurry of snow on Monday morning, Bureau of Meteorology Duty forecaster Jane Golding said.

"We had falls in the Snowy's and down to about 900 metres above sea level," Ms Golding told AAP.

"We had a cold front and it brought a lot of cold, dry air with it, and also thunderstorms. The origin of (the front) looks like it was well south in the southern ocean."

Ms Golding said summer snow was a rare occurrence in towns such as Cooma.

"In Cooma, records began there in 1973 and we've never had any observations of snow there in December, January and February," she said.

"They generally get five days of snow (per year), so it is unusual any time of year to snow in Cooma."

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-nat...-mg8i.html

[Mercy Now]

So that's 0 degrees Celcius( 32 degrees Farenheit) correct?

[Astrojewels]

Yes MN.

This is news to me, but I must say it has been a cold week! Compared to last week’s heat wave, we have gone from temps of 38-43 (100-109F) to 16-24 (60-75F), but this is not unusual it happens occasionally, we often get a cold snap from down south.

[Mercy Now]

Kind of sounds like our  spring & autumn where we will have wild temp swings. Last week we hovered near 50 degrees for a couple of days after a long stretch of not getting above 20 .This isn't unheard of in these parts ...just seems to becoming more common.

[Astrojewels]

It can be hard to deal with, as your body adjusts to the heat and in just a matter of hours the temps plummet 30 degrees, but they never rise that quick, it usually takes a few days to get back up to hot hot..

How is the weather over there now, have you stopped getting all that snow?

[Mercy Now]

Yes,  the snow has stopped here at least . It has all melted and we are getting some off and on drizzly rain.   Foggy and damp .

[Astrojewels]

 

Any clear days yet? I love fog, we get a lot of fog in winter, and I love to look up at the mountains when they are surrounded by it, and usually a sunny day follows.

[Mercy Now]

We had a couple of  partly clear days just recently when it got near 50.

[Astrojewels]

Well MN, 50! Get out the bikinis! Ha

There is one bonus when the weather changes here, due to the fires last year there are many species of birds that come here on the cooler days, and the red tailed black cockatoo is one, they are just amazing, they travel in massive flocks and three times as loud as a normal cockatoo.

[Mercy Now]

Sounds beautiful. We have the red cardinals here all year long but in the grey of winter  they are are very welcome sight.There are colorful woodpeckers and blue jays.  The bluebirds usually don't show up until it's  warmer. Even the Canadian geese flew further south this past cold spell.

I know it's officially spring when the barn swallows return. I love barn swallows. When we first looked at the property I found a bunch of blue barn swallow feathers and named the place for them. Blue Feather.