|
 Snow
eases in SE states
The cold outbreak over SE AUS eased today, though light snow kept
falling through the day in a few favoured areas. On the NSW Central
Tablelands, a persistent cover of low stratocumulus produced light snow showers
and drifting ice prisms through daylight hours, with Oberon reporting a top
temperature to 3pm of 0° and 5cm snow on ground. Light snow fell during
the day at Millthorpe and Orange, with 2cm on the ground at 9am at Orange
Airport, all of which had melted by 3pm. On the Northern Tablelands, Guyra
reported snow showers at 9am with 4cm snow depth, while Armidale Uni was
still having showers of sleet at midday with a temperature of 3.6. In the
Snowy Mountains, Kosciuszko Chalet's snow depth was up 15cm on yesterday
to 80cm, while Thredbo reported 5cm fresh snow.
In TAS, the last cold front of the current episode swept across the island
around 9 to 10am, though it had the effect of taking the cold air with it.
Mt Wellington summit's temperature rose from -5.2 at 3am to a balmy +1.2
at midday, though this was accompanied by blizzard conditions with wind averaging
93km/h and later gusting to 122km/h. Stations on the Central Plateau reported
snow during the morning, with 15cm on the ground at Lake St Clair and 1cm at
Tarraleah.
Low
temperatures continue in the north
Queenslanders farewelled one cold snap today only to see another approaching. The
cold, dry airmass that entered QLD last Wednesday and spread to the rest of
tropical AUS affected only the Cape York Peninsula, the NT Top End and the
far north Kimberley in WA overnight. Timber Creek, in the Territory's northwest,
set a new record for June minima with a reading of 5.0 its coldest in 23 years
of observations. As this airmass moved offshore, the next wave of cold air
from this weekend's cold outbreak over the southeast was snapping at its heels,
with daytime temperatures 4 to 7° below average across most of QLD and
the eastern half of the NT. Brisk onshore trade winds at Townsville capsized
one 6-man outrigger and gave trouble to two others off Picnic Bay, all three
being rescued by Townsville Coastguard. On land, a horse trainer and galloper
were narrowly missed by a tree blowing down, while powerlines were brought
down by the wind in the suburb of West End. |
