Australia to be lashed with wild weather from heatwave temperatures to storms, hail and snow

The land of droughts and flooding rain is set for a wild week of weather with snow set to fall in Tasmania as Sydneysiders battle through a 33C heatwave.

Australia’s strange weather phenomenon is being caused by a ‘cut-off’ low pressure system that could bring lighting, large hail, destructive winds and heavy rainfall across large parts of the country.

Perth and surrounding areas will be lashed with thunderstorms and lightning strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday before the chaotic weather pushes across central Australia arriving in the southeast on Thursday.  

‘It is all being caused by the same weather system – a cut-off low pressure system forming over the continent,’ Senior meteorologist Jonathan How at the Bureau of Meteorology told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.

‘The continent is really hot but the oceans south of Australia are very cold and this happens as we transition into the warmer months. 

‘It’s dragging down a lot of heat from the desert and that will lead to really hot days on Friday on the east coast in places like Sydney.

‘At the same time once that low pressure system develops we will get a lot of rain and storms mainly in Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania.’

Storms are forecast to lash Perth and surrounding areas on Tuesday and Wednesday before the system moves east toward Adelaide on Thursday.

It is not expected to reach Melbourne and Hobart until late on Thursday, but when it does, the cold front will intensify bringing cloudy and frosty conditions for much of the southeast.

Rain will be bucketing down in Victoria’s capital on Friday and in Tasmania it’s forecast to snow. 

Temperatures in Hobart will drop to 6C on Saturday while in Melbourne the mercury will slide to a chilly 8C. 

‘The snow is very dependent on this low pressure system,’ Mr How said.

‘If it shifts a couple of hundred kilometres it could change the conditions but at this point there is a good chance of snow falling in Tasmania. 

‘There is less of a chance in Victoria, but snowfall is still possible across alpine peaks.

‘Obviously this is unusual as we don’t expect to see snow falling as we get into November but Australia is always such a roller coaster.’

At the same time Victoria and Tasmania are shivering, Sydneysiders will be facing a heatwave in the mid-30s as the cut-off low drags warm air from the desert to the southeast.

But in northern NSW and southeast Queensland on Friday and Saturday, there could be ‘lightning, large hail, destructive wind gusts, and heavy rainfall’.  

‘We are anticipating plenty of storms right across the country starting in WA and progressing east all the way from the NT through to SA and it’s quite a large cold front,’ Mr How said.