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Today's 500hPa chart for 10am. 500hPa
is about 5.5km above sea level. While the cold pool is retreating into
the Tasman, showers in its wake brought renewed snow to southern and central
NSW. Weatherzone, BoM  |
 NSW, QLD: Wintry
weather as cold pool moves NE
Very cold daytime temperatures and widespread but light snowfalls were reported
the length of the NSW Tablelands today, extending into southern QLD. An
upper low, responsible for wild weather in SA on Tuesday and
widespread snow in NSW yesterday moved
into the Tasman, swinging cold southwest to southerly winds across eastern
NSW and as far north as the Darling Downs of QLD.
Yesterday evening, the nearly circular upper low shown on the 500hPa chart
in yesterday's report elongated NW/SE while low
pressure developed from the surface up to about 700hPa (3km) off the far NSW
South Coast. Cloud and
light
precipitation
swinging around the lower-atmosphere low began to make its way west to Cooma
and the Snowy Mountains, and northwards up the coast and nearby ranges. Snow
fell around Nimmitabel, Jindabyne, Adaminaby, Bredbo and Captains Flat as
well as on the Tinderry Range overnight as the precipitation band moved into
the cold airmass covering the northeastern
half
of NSW and
before relatively warmer Tasman Sea air began
moving up the coast. On the Snowy Mountains, snow cover at Charlotte Pass increased
from 70cm yesterday morning to 85cm this afternoon. Light snow was reported
around daylight on the Southern Highlands.
On the Blue Mountains, snow fell continuously
between Wentworth Falls and Mount Victoria from shortly after 9am to about
midday. About 5cm accumulated at Blackheath. The snow then turned to rain as
the warmer
air
arrived,
with
most
snow melting
by 2pm. Students at Katoomba High, Katoomba North Primary,
Blackheath Primary and Lithgow High Schools were sent home about 10.30am as
a safeguard against being snowed in.
In the state's north, light snow continued overnight and into the day from
moisture that circulated around the cold pool yesterday and returned from the
west today. Light snow gave a dusting on the ground in and around Glen Innes
and Armidale
with heavier falls causing icy, slushy roads around Black Mountain and Guyra,
which was reported heavy snow with a temperature of 0.2C at 3pm.
There were isolated reports of snow, ice and sleet in SE QLD. At Stanthorpe
and the Granite Belt, where elevations range from 800 to 1000m, snow fell and
police reported icy roads from a combination of snow, previous rain and low
temperatures. Stanthorpe Summit sawmill manager Greg Howard told The Courier-Mail that
flakes were about the size of a 10c piece and the fall was the longest he could
recall since 1984. Ballandean winemaker Blair Duncan said he watched snow falling
and settling on the tops of cars for about 30 minutes between 9.30 and 10am
at his Symphony Hill winery, about 20km south of Stanthorpe. Snow was also
reported at Glen Aplin, Applethorpe and Eukey in the Granite Belt, the first
for 7 years. The Brisbane office of the Bureau
of Meteorology received a report of sleet falling
at Wacol
in
Brisbane's
southwest and another of sleet
at Toowoomba.
The maximum temperature anomaly map above shows that official maximum
temperatures were between 6 and 9C below average across much of NE NSW and
far southern
QLD.
However,
this
disguises the fact that official maxima are for the 24 hours from 9am, and
that many centres recorded their official figure at 9am on Friday as temperatures
returned to normal. The following table shows the maximum temperatures for
the 6 hours 9am to 3pm for a number of centres, alongside their official 24-hour
figures and their lowest June maxima on record.
Location |
Max to 3pm |
Max 24 hours to 9am Thurs |
Lowest June max on record |
Number of years of observations |
Mount Boyce |
2 |
5.4 |
2.2 |
10 |
Guyra |
2 |
3.8 |
2.2 |
20 |
Katoomba |
3 |
5.7 |
2.2 |
34 |
Lithgow |
3 |
6.7 |
3.0 |
38 |
Orange Airport |
3 |
7.4 |
2.2 |
36 |
Armidale Uni |
5 |
4.6 |
4.2 |
8 |
Glen Innes PO |
5 |
5.9 |
4.3 |
41 |
Stanthorpe GBHRS |
6 |
6.0 |
6.7 |
35 |
Bathurst Ag Station |
7 |
7.3 |
4.2 |
39 |
Parkes (town) |
7 |
7.5 |
6.5 |
48 |
Dubbo Airport |
8 |
7.7 |
8.6 |
10 |
Wollongong Uni |
12 |
14.1 |
10.8 |
34 |
Some noteworthy low midday temperatures in NSW were: Condobolin 6.7, Armidale
3.0, Inverell 4.7, Murrurundi Gap 4.4, Mudgee 6.5, Nullo Mountain -0.5, Bathurst
Airport 3.5, Katoomba 0.4, Mt Boyce 0.1, Orange Airport 1.9, Parkes Airport
5.5 and Moss Vale 4.8. In QLD, the cold weather caused a new peak winter record
power consumption of 7250 megawatts on Wednesday.
 NSW,
VIC: Heavy rain on South and Gippsland Coasts
As a trough associated with the low off SE NSW turned winds onshore, a band
of heavy rain moved through Gippsland this morning and up the NSW coast
during
the afternoon
and
evening. In East Gippsland, most stations reported between 25 and 50mm in the
24 hours to 9am, with Reeves Knob, 65km N of Sale, topscoring on 51.8mm. On
the NSW South Coast, the rainband gave some heavy falls between Bega
and Nowra. The highest 24-hour totals to 9am
Friday
were
70.0mm
at Milton,
67 at Sassafras, 64.2 at Nowra, 57.6 at Moruya Heads and 56.0 at Ulladulla.
Moruya Airport recorded 46mm between midday and 9pm while Sassafras, 40km SW
of Nowra, registered 43mm between 6pm and midnight. Ulladulla reported a wind
gust of 85km/h as the trough moved through.
WA:
Front brings rain and strong winds
Coastal locations south of Perth reported 25 to 50mm of prefrontal rain ahead
of a front that moved through late this morning. The rain gave a top fall of
52.0mm to Busselton Shire Council, while wind gusts reached 109km/h at Rottnest
Island and 85km/h at Garden Island.
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