Prepare for another polar explosion: Australia faces a frigid week as wild winds blow and temperatures plummet
- Temperatures dropped to 10C below average
- Southeastern Australia was battered by rain, hail and snow
- Severe weather warnings remain in effect in NSW
Forecasters have warned that an icy polar blast that hit Australia this weekend, sending temperatures plummeting, is a lasting event.
Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart were in the grips of a cold front this weekend with temperatures reaching 14°C nowhere in southeastern Australia.
Snow and hail blanketed parts of Victoria, NSW and the ACT, where overnight temperatures dipped below zero.
Temperatures in NSW fell a whopping 5°C below the May average. 8C in South Australia and 10C in Tasmania.
Ski resorts welcomed fresh powder snow a month into the ski season.
NSW and Victoria remain in the firing line on Monday as cold and wind gusts from the south pound the coast.
Nighttime temperatures in Sydney dipped as the mercury dipped to 10.5C at Sydney Airport at 4am Monday, but the apparent temperature was a chilly 8C as cold winds blew through Harbor City.
Melbourne was also chilly with the mercury dropping to 7.5C at Melbourne Airport. The apparent temperature was an icy 1.6C.
In southeastern Australia, temperatures have dropped to 10°C below average
As the cold front has moved off the coast of NSW, a seA cold wind will come from the south of the country in the coming days.
The Bureau of Meteorology on Monday issued a severe weather warning for the Sydney and Illawarra regions with damaging winds along the coast.
Large and powerful southerly waves will also pound the coast from the mid-north coast all the way to Ulladulla in the south with warnings of dangerous waves.
Sydney will top 18C on Monday, but it will feel much colder due to the gusty winds.
“We’ve seen a narrow storm band along the coast, which is the equivalent of a Category Two cyclone,” Channel Seven meteorologist Tony Auden told Sunrise.
“Fortunately they are not on the coast, but we have a lot of wind over land, warnings for damaging wind gusts of up to 100km/h south of Sydney as far as Ulladulla with gusts of up to 50km/h as far north as NSW and Queensland as well.
‘Those winds whip up huge seas, possibly with wave heights of up to 8-9 meters off the NSW coast. As that low ebbs away, that energy source moves north and away.”
“We expect quite a bit of erosion on the beaches and could see inundation in low-lying areas.”
Visitors flocked to Victoria’s Mount Hotham ski resort over the weekend to get a taste of the snow
Hail-covered cars in Canberra (pictured) on Sunday.
Snow is expected to fall at 600 meters in Tasmania, 800 meters in Victoria and as low as 900 meters in NSW, according to senior meteorologist Dean Narramore of the Bureau of Meteorology.
“We’ve seen temperatures four to eight degrees below average in Tasmania, Victoria and NSW and on Monday that cold air will push into Queensland,” Narramore said.
“We are likely to see widespread inland frost across Northern Victoria, much of NSW. We could even see frost coming in parts of Queensland on Monday and Tuesday.”
Mr Narramore described it as ‘a sure sign that winter is coming’.
The cold front moving through NSW is expected to form into a low pressure system from Sunday night.
The country’s capital was blanketed in hail on Sunday as the mercury dipped below zero
Gale force and high wind warnings are in place for southern waters including Batemans Coast, Eden Coast and Illawarra.
There are also strong wind warnings from Sydney to the mid-north coast and Byron.
Another cold front is expected to hit Western Australia on Wednesday, bringing rain, gales and high winds, Narramore said.
Thursday is expected to bring wet and cold weather to Adelaide before weakening and moving into Victoria and Tasmania.