Residents just 90 minutes out of Sydney have woken up to fresh snowfall this morning, and the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a weekend of extreme winter conditions.
FYI to the snow seekers...your drones don’t fly well in the snow #lost #lookingthroughsnow #toocold pic.twitter.com/VcokBr7TUk
— Rachel Nicoll (@RachelNicollAU) August 10, 2019
Erica Mann, who moved to Blackheath in the Blue Mountains from the sandy shores of Coogee in Sydney's eastern beaches two years ago, was ecstatic to find fresh white powder falling in her garden.
She said it was the most snow she had seen there yet.
"I opened the curtains and I could see a huge amount of snow on top of the water tank - it was so exciting," she said.
"It's amazing. I went up the street … and all the houses are completely covered in snow."
She said the snow was deep enough for her dog Missy to leave paw prints.
"The funny thing is she came back really briskly," she said.
Yesterday, destructive winds battered south-east Australia, causing chaos at airports, tearing roofs off buildings and causing a tree to fall onto a car, killing a woman and leaving a child in a critical condition north-east of Melbourne.
We have snow here in Katoomba ☃️ pic.twitter.com/FP6THzJFwn
— Jon Dee (JonDee.com) (@JonDeeOz) August 9, 2019
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has warned NSW to brace itself for "Antarctic winds", blowing from south of Tasmania, bringing damaging winds and plummeting temperatures.
"The winds we saw yesterday are extending further north today and will remain strong and gusty throughout the weekend," BOM spokesperson Craig Ryan said.
"There's a possibility of damaging winds up through the Hunter, through the Southern Tablelands, Illawarra and the higher parts of the south coast, west of Bega."
The Great Western Highway between Wentworth Falls and Mount Victoria was closed earlier due to snow and ice and was reopened around 9:30am.
However, the Transport Management Centre advised motorists to still avoid the area in light of potential "further intermittent closures" on the highway.
In regional NSW, many roads in and around Oberon in the Central Tablelands were closed.
The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) said they had to rescue some motorists who became stranded on the Mitchell Highway between Orange and Bathurst.
Just had another decent snow shower here in Katoomba. Up to 8cm now on the outdoor furniture. @BlackheathWx @BOM_NSW pic.twitter.com/iv5kVT1KSb
— Peter Belshaw (@MountainPine) August 9, 2019
A morning service train from Sydney Central to Mount Victoria as well as several buses in Katoomba were also cancelled due to "extreme weather conditions".
Mr Ryan said there was a possibility wind speeds could exceed 90kph along the south coast, but conditions were expected to ease into the evening.
"The winds we saw yesterday will be gradually easing over today. We are not expecting [them] to be as strong," he said.
In Sydney, the temperatures were expected to drop to as low as 7 degrees Celsius tonight but would be hovering around 17C during daylight hours.
In the Katoomba and Blue Mountains region, the temperature will be around 3C during the day and could drop to a minimum of -2C.
Residents in the Riverina also received a dumping of snow, with some towns recording their first falls in decades.
Cootamundra local Steve Theobald said the last time he remembered snow was 1985 while residents in Tumut, only 305 metres above sea level, said it was the first fall since 2000.
Other towns in southern NSW that have recorded snow include Adelong, Harden and Batlow.
Mr Ryan said the snowfall would continue into Sunday and will be finished by Monday.
Despite the worst of the wintry conditions moving out of Victoria a cold front is expected to remain in the state with damaging wind gusts of up to 100kph forecast for the state's east.
On Friday, strong winds tore the roof off a nursing home near Newcastle and also fanned two out-control bushfires on the state's mid-north coast before the blazes eased.
- ABC
