Snow falls on coldest day of the year in Melbourne

Low-level snow has fallen early on Thursday, which is set to be Victoria’s coldest day of the year, as a cold front sweeps across south-eastern Australia.

The Bureau of Meteorology said at least several centimetres of snow had already blanketed all Victorian alpine resorts, and that snow was expected to fall in parts of the state with elevations of 600 metres.

The plunging temperatures have been brought on by a blast of cold winds from the Southern Ocean, which collided with a cloud bank over south-eastern Australia and caused rain. In elevated parts of Victoria where there is enough cool air close to the ground, the rain will fall as snow.

“Because this was a fairly brief burst of cold air … the snow level is going up today, so it was down to 600 metres but it will be rising [in elevation] pretty quickly over the course of the day,” said bureau meteorologist Robert Urbaniak.

“So tomorrow [Friday] you still might get snow, but the snow level will have risen to 1400 [metres].”

Callers to 3AW on Thursday morning said it was snowing in Kinglake, Pheasant Creek and Healesville, all north-east of Melbourne. The Snow Victoria Facebook page predicted, using BOM data, there might also be “significant snow flurries” at Mount Macedon, Trentham and even Mount Dandenong.

Snow is also expected in elevated terrain in NSW, Tasmania and the ACT.

Melbourne will reach a top temperature of just 14 degrees, making Thursday the coldest day of the year so far. Temperatures will rise in the coming days, and reach 21 in a week’s time.

The chilly conditions follow period of unseasonably warm late-autumn weather in Melbourne, but Urbaniak said it was common for conditions to change suddenly.

“That’s the sort of one reason people like to talk about four seasons in one day in Melbourne because ahead of the cold front you get warm north-westerly winds – and it’s dry – and then you get the rain, with the cold front, and you [get] the cold air behind the cold front with showers.”

The cold front has also brought strong winds to Victoria, and the bureau warned there might also be hail and thunder.

It cautioned sheep graziers in parts of Victoria’s western, central and East Gippsland regions they were at risk of losses to livestock exposed in these conditions.

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