Winter blast to sweep across Australia

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

A chilly winter blast will sweep across Australia this week as winds from the Antarctic, snow and several 'bands' of rain wreak widespread havoc. A cold change is heading towards Australia southeast from Tasmania, which will move into NSW in the coming days.
On the other side of the country, Perth is set to receive its heaviest rainfall this year as a slow-moving low pressure system brings rainfall totals potentially exceeding 85mm over Tuesday and Wednesday. The extreme conditions in the first week of winter come after Australia enjoyed its fourth warmest autumn on record. The south-western regions of Western Australia will cop a soaking after a relatively dry start to 2025 with below-average rainfall in its capital.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Angus Hines told Daily Mail Australia thunderstorm presented the main threat to south-western WA. '(We've just) had the first band of what will probably be a few different bands of showers and storms between now and Wednesday,' he said. 'Parts of western WA will see a good few storms out over the water, which are sort of headed towards Perth over the next few hours.
'Then that's going to become quite a common pattern between now and Wednesday. 'They'll likely see bands of showers embedded with a few storms, and then in between those bands, it'll probably brighten up again and the sun will come out, and then another band will roll through.' There is a chance that thunderstorms could develop into severe thunderstorms with damaging wind gusts or extra heavy rainfall which could flooding in coastal areas.
'That risk is there for well the next few hours, as this first band goes through that it come back on Tuesday with another another spell of showers and storms,' Mr Hines said. West Australians will see the system starting to weaken by Thursday. 'There might be a few lighter showers lingering, but the venom will have been sucked out of this weather system,' he said.
Some bands of rain may reach as far north as the Pilbara bringing unseasonal showers to the area, but in a diminished capacity. Elsewhere across the country, a cold change has been making its way towards the south-east mainland. '(That) has been slowly crossing Tasmania and on Tuesday morning, that'll move across Victoria and about the southern half of South Australia,' Mr Hines said.
'Then on Tuesday night and into Wednesday, that'll move up through through NSW.' The cold front will likely bring rain and a little snow to the higher peaks of Tasmania. 'As the slightly cooler air kicks in on Tuesday, we could certainly see some snow falling across both the Tasmanian mountains and then eventually, a little bit later on tomorrow, Victoria and southern New South Wales mountains,' Mr Hines said. The chance of rain will ease over the week, however, the frosty air is expected to stick around for several days, with plummeting overnight temperatures expected.
Meteorologists are expecting rainfall totals to be minor, in good news for the rain-battered regions of New South Wales, which are only now beginning to recover from the damage of the recent flooding. 'Sometimes fronts can bring really vigorous and punchy sort of rain and storms and big accumulations of snow,' Mr Hines said. 'But this one is only bringing pretty minor rainfall totals really. There will be a bit of rain with it today and tomorrow as it moves northwards, but certainly nothing significant and not likely to be heavy rain or flooding.'
'So it's just going to be the snow and the cold air will be more of the notable effects of this front.' The cold 'pool' is expected to hangover south-east NSW and Victoria which could mean two days or more of snow for the alpine regions. Snow can be expected at lower levels as the coldest air of the front arrives, about 900m on the mainland and 600m of elevation in Tasmania. The bureau issued a warning to graziers in areas of the NSW Snowy Mountains on Tuesday, warning the chilly conditions could cause the loss of lambs.
Marine wind warnings are also in place for much of the NSW coast. A second cold front will approach south-eastern Australia closer to the weekend. That system is expected to bring snow to the highest areas of the Australian Alps on Saturday, just in time for the June long weekend. Another, more significant mass of cold air will hit the same regions on Sunday into Monday. Sydneysiders will see a top of 16C on Tuesday and south-westerly winds between 25 and 35km/h could bring late showers. Cloudy conditions will cover Melbourne with a high chance of showers expected for an otherwise 14C winter's day. In Hobart, the mercury isn't expected to pass 12C with a medium chance of showers projected.