Polar blast sees coldest day in FORTY years as snow hits across three states

Millions of Australians will shiver through the coldest day in 37 years as a polar blast sends snow sweeping over three states, but the sun should reemerge by the weekend.

A pool of cold air from Antarctica swirling over the nation’s south-east on Wednesday night sent blankets of snow and torrential rain over Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.

In NSW, the mercury is expected to dip more than 10 degrees below average for this time of year in some places, which is close to breaking minimum temperature records for June.

Sydney will get its coldest day in 25 years with temperatures in many suburbs not making it out of double digits after the CBD hit just 6C overnight.  

Katoomba, Blackheath and Mount Victoria in the upper Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, saw its first sprinkle of the season on Thursday morning.

Significant snowfall is expected across the state, including in the Northern Tablelands for the first time in almost six years.

Snow has already landed in regional NSW, including in Orange in the state’s Central West, and Oberon in the Central Tablelands, for the first time in six years.

The state’s north will be particularly chilly with temperatures not seen in decades, and be hit with snow even close to the Queensland border.

Inverell will only get to 5C, the coldest day in 37 years, and Tamworth just 7C, the coldest to zero during the day since 1998. 

Armidale will get up to 20cms of snow through the night into Thursday following and have its coldest day in several years.  

Weatherzone meteorologist Graeme Brittain told Daily Mail Australia that further falls are expected over the central tablelands and Barrington Tops in NSW on Thursday.

‘About 2cm to 5cm of snow is predicted for those areas on Thursday, but it could be more,’ he said. 

About half a metre of snow is also expected to blanket the state’s alpine regions. 

Strong winds and heavy rain forecast for the south coast later this week will add to the chill factor.

Flurries may be seen as far north as Darling Downs, in Queensland’s western slopes, later in the day on Thursday as a record-breaking cold snap sent the mercury plunging to -5.6C in the early morning. 

Temperatures will drop about 10 degrees below seasonal averages in the Sunshine State on Thursday, with low figures of 0.3C recorded in Oakley and -4.2C in Dalby. 

The Granite Belt may be treated to a sprinkling of snow on Thursday on peaks in the Stanthorpe region. 

Victoria will also be blasted by the cold weather and widespread blackouts, but is facing damaging winds and potential flooding as well.

Multiple suburbs north of Melbourne have experiences blackouts due to increasing storm activity across the state.

According to power tracking site Outage Tracker, a large thousands of Victorians are unlikely to have power restored until late on Friday. 

Wind gusts of up to 120km an hour are expected in some places and blizzard conditions are possible about the alpine peaks on Thursday morning.

A severe weather warning for heavy rainfall is also current, with Warrnambool, Bendigo, Seymour, Maryborough, Ballarat, Geelong, Melbourne and Traralgon in the firing line.

A flood watch has been issued for Gippsland and parts of north east and central Victoria.

‘It is likely that we’ll see those rivers responding to that significant amount of rainfall, the rivers may remain quite high for a number of days,’ meteorologist Christopher Arvier said. 

More than 150 calls for help were recorded by the Victorian SES on Wednesday night

Emerald, Sorrento and Gisborne on the outskirts of Melbourne were the worst affected areas.

Now Gippsland residents in the state’s east are being warned of the potential for major flooding.

Emergency Services Meteorologist Kevin Parkyn said over the next 24-28 hours, a weather event known as a cyclogenesis will unfold over the Tasman Sea.

This rapid intensifying of a low-pressure system will bring heavy rain.

‘We have a special name for this type of weather system and they’re called east coast lows,’ he said.

‘It’s quite common and known by the Gippsland community and the emergency services because it’s these events … that result in heavy rain into Gippsland.’

The weather front brought about 25mm of rain to the townships of Portland and Dartmoor in southwest Victoria. 

Alpine areas including Mt Buller and Mt William recorded wind gusts of more than 100km/h. 

Closer to Melbourne, Kilmore had winds of 91km/h and Fawkner, north of the city, was hit by the powerful gusts of 72km/h.

There is also potential for major flooding in the state’s east, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning about a system intensifying on Thursday.

‘The last time we saw flooding of this (potential) magnitude through parts of west Gippsland was around 2012,’ Bureau of Meteorology Senior Forecaster Tom Delamotte said.

‘The last time we saw flooding of this (potential) magnitude through parts of west Gippsland was around 2012,’ Bureau of Meteorology Senior Forecaster Tom Delamotte said.

A severe weather warning for damaging winds is current for north-eastern parts of Tasmania, and a flood watch was issued on Wednesday evening for the eastern half of the state.

Around 160mm of rain is possible about the northeast coastal ranges.

Minor or moderate flooding may develop from midday on Thursday, and flash flooding is also possible.

The weather should begin to clear out by the weekend, the Bureau of Meteorology  said.

Sydney will see sunshine and highs of 19 from Saturday, and Melbourne will see patchy rain heading into next week.

The weather in Brisbane will clear with sunshine and highs of 22, Adelaide residents will see a cloudy start to the weekend and people in Perth will see patches of rain.

Darwin will be the nation’s warmest capital city with a maximum of 31 heading into next week, but Tasmanians and people from Canberra will shiver over the long-weekend with tops of 16 and 11.