Wintry
outbreak brings widespread light snow, gales, hail to Vic, Tas, NSWNEWSBITS: Record cold night in SE WA
Stormy, wintry weather swept across SA, Victoria and NSW today as an upper cold pool traversed the states in the wake of a cold front. The most significant weather crossed the SE SA and western Victorian coasts before dawn, then pushed on through southern NSW during the afternoon. A succession of rainbands moved through Victoria during the morning, after which widespread wintry showers developed in northern Victoria and southern NSW late morning and early afternoon in the cold, unstable airstream. Balloon ascents at 9 this morning reported temperature drops of around 11 to 14° in the past 24 hours in the middle atmosphere. At Mt Gambier, the 500hPa (18,000 feet) temperature dropped from -20 to -33.5, while Wagga's trace showed a drop at 550hPa of 14°.
The first reports of significant weather came from a truck driver who was hit by a major hailstorm 30km north of Millicent in SE SA around 4am. Golf-ball sized hail broke his truck window and the truck slid off the road in hail drifts 10 to 15cm deep. Snow was reported around dawn on the Otway Ranges in Victoria southwest of Melbourne, with the lowest altitude reports coming from Bambra on the northern slopes at around 300m. The cold pool moved over the central and southern NSW ranges between late morning and late afternoon. Light snow was reported from Oberon and the Blue Mountains around noon, with a noon temperature at Mt Boyce, between Blackheath and Mt Victoria, of 2.5°. Canberra Airport reported a temperature of 4° with hail at 3pm, and snow fell down to 750m on Mt Taylor in southwestern Canberra suburbs, with a snow line to 850m, late afternoon. Snow was also reported falling at Tidbinbilla, Tumbarumba and Goulburn late afternoon, while strong winds and falling snow created blizzard-like conditions north of Goulburn between Crookwell and Bigga. Though snow accumulations were small north of the Alps due to the dryness of the airmass, there was still enough to cause icy roads, with two cars reported stuck in icy conditions near Lithgow late afternoon. The Snowy Mountains fared better, with Thredbo Village recording 46mm and Perisher Valley 55mm precipitation falling as snow between 9am and 3pm.
Gale to storm force, squally winds accompanied the cold pool, gusting to 115km/h at Wilsons Promintory in Victoria and 113km/h at Maatsuyker Island, Tasmania. Strong squalls, or possibly a waterspout drifting onshore, ripped a quarter of the roof off the Seal Rocks Sea Life Centre on Phillip Island during the afternoon. Gale force winds also raised dust in NW Victoria, with a top gust of 93km/h at Walpeup early afternoon. A waterspout is also likely to have come ashore at Seal Rocks, NSW, during the afternoon.
With the main body of cold air crossing to its north, Tasmania received only light snow down to 700m. However, heavier rain began falling in parts of the southeast late in the day as southerly winds wound up around the low pressure system moving away to the east.
NEWSBITS: An abnormally cold night in far southeastern WA produced a record low minimum August temperature for Balgair of -1.4°.