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While snow
is relatively common in Australia, it is one of the least monitored
and discussed of weather phenomena. Snow lies each winter for 3 or
4 months on the Australian Alps in Victoria and NSW, and less reliably
on the highlands of Tasmania. Elsewhere, snowfalls range from uncommon
to rare and are usually associated with deep intrusions of cold southerly
airmasses. This section pulls together the relatively sparse information
on our alpine snow and the rarer non-alpine snow events.
- Current and forecast snow
- Snow
reports, skicams and forecasts from Ski.com.au. The
24-hour weather station graphs (click in the history column) are particularly useful, as
are the NSW, VIC and TAS webcams.
(31/08/05)
- Australian
snow forecasts, maps and related links (22/12/02)
- Frequently
updated Alpine
Weather Observations from John
Barratt uses graphs to monitor temperature, precipitation and
estimated and measured snowfall at many resort stations. There is
also a useful archive
of webcam inages from ski.com.au. (22/06/04)
- Alpine snow
- Snowfall
on the NSW Snowy Mountains (PDF, 1.7mb),
a Bureau of Meteorology Technical Report by John Colquhoun that
studies
the synoptic situations that produce snowfalls on the Snowy
Mountains. The report includes two case studies from 1974, looks
at variations in the water content and density of the snowpack,
and examines the relationship between the atmospheric circulation
and precipitation in the area. Reproduced by kind permission
of the Bureau. (14/07/04)
- Snow
in Australia: Trends and Variability; excerpts from a paper
by David Slater. (22/12/02)
- Snowfalls
in New South Wales 1957 to 1979, a general description of
the conditions required for snow accumulation followed by a detailed
analysis of each ski season in the NSW Snowy Mountains and more
widespread falls across NSW. PDF format. (22/12/02)
- Snow
depth graphs from the Snowy
Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority. This pdf
file gives nice set of Snowy Mtns snow depth charts from 1954
to date, all on one A4 sheet while this
form lets you retrieve comparative snow depth graphs from 1954
to 2002. (22/12/02)
- Non-alpine snow, including widespread and unusual snowfalls
- Annual average days of snow for all Australian stations where snow has been reported:
- From highest to lowest
- WA, NT, SA and QLD
- NSW
- VIC
- TAS, islands and Antarctica
- The snowstorm of 5 July 1900 was arguably the
worst snowstorm to occur in recorded history away from the Alps.
Its likely causes were examined by Doug Shepherd in a Meteorological
Note Extraordinary
Snowstorm of 5 July 1900 (PDF, 0.5mb), reproduced
by kind permission of the Bureau of Meteorology. This graphic
description of the
storm (PDF), by H. C. Russell was published
in Results of Rain, River and Evaporation Observations made
in New South Wales during 1900, Met of NSW Dept of Instruction
1903. (14/07/04)
- ABC News covering the major July 1965 NSW snowstorm,
broadcast at 7pm Sunday 18 July 1965. This sound clip gives a good feel
for what was a most extraordinary event (and a reminder of how
leisurely
the news was in those days!) The 7pm ABC radio news was the major
news bulletin of the day, and the NSW snow story headed both the
national and state sections (separated by a "bing" to
tell the regional stations to poke their local newsreaders into
action.)
The broadcast has been edited to remove non-snow stories from
the national section
-- in the state section, the snowstorm was the only news. (21/08/04)
- The
Blue Mountains snow storm of 17-18 July 1965. This article
(PDF) extracted from the August 1965 edition of the Australian
Railway Historical Society NSW Digest describes the impact
of a major snowstorm on the Blue Mountains (and elsewhere
in NSW) on railway operations. (22/12/02)
- Blackheath
Weather. Observations, photos and information on snow in the
Blue Mountains and Central Tablelands of NSW. (06/06/06)
- Snow and weather on the Northern Tablelands,
NSW. Details of snowfalls since 1971 for Armidale and since 1982 for Guyra, and the conditions
required for snow in the area. Go to the bottom of the page for the most important links. Brief information on weather at Uralla, Glen Innes and Tenterfield. (03/05/11)
- Snow in Queensland. A comprehensive listing by Nicholas Oughton of snowfalls in Queensland with descriptions of recent major events and a guide to where snow is most likely to be seen. (11/09/22)
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