| Yet another mass of cold southern
air poured across Tasmania, Victoria and the southern extremities of SA
and NSW today. An initial cold front crossed the area overnight, with the
coldest air accompanying a second surge that crossed Tasmania and Victoria
during daylight hours.
In Victoria, the midday temperature
at Cape Otway Lighthouse, 170km SW of Melbourne, was only 5° in
the wake of the second front which gave heavy hail showers and squally
winds to Melbourne suburbs and across the state's south and east.
Late afternoon snow was reported by the Ballarat Airport observer,
while snow or hail up to 2cm deep caused treacherous conditions on the
main highway through and east of the city. The radiosonde balloon ascent
from Melbourne Airport at 9pm showed a temperature of -13.3 at
700hPa (2.9km) and -31.9 at 500hPa (5.4km), both around 7° below average.
In the state's northeast, 20 to 35mm of rain below the snowline
in the Alps caused minor flooding along the Kiewa River and the upper
Murray upstream from Lake Hume. The rain caused flooding across the Murray
Valley Highway at five places near Barnawatha, and a rock slide on the
Great Alpine Road near Smoko south of Bright. Meanwhile, the Mitta Mitta
River was in minor flood as the rain topped up preliminary releases of
water from Dartmouth Dam in preparation for major runoff expected when
the heavy snow cover across the Alps thaws.
In Tasmania, snow fell to the 500m
level and was reported from Maydena during the day at an elevation of
just 275m. In the NSW Snowy Mountains, heavy snow fell throughout
the day, raising the snow depth in Thredbo Village from nothing
yesterday morning to 50cm by mid afternoon. Mount Gambier in far southeastern
South Australia reported hail showers through the day and a noon temperature
of 6.2°
|
as
new and corrected information becomes available, with updates underlined