Record spring cold snap delivers snow and severe frost to south-east Australia
Temperatures across south-east Australia have plummeted during the past 48 hours, leading to the coldest spring weather in decades.
Tom Saunders is a meteorologist with the ABC in NSW. He presents the weather in the 7PM TV news bulletin and contributes to online, radio and the News Channel. Tom began his career as an operational forecaster after studying atmospheric science at Macquarie University before taking a broadcast meteorology role with The Weather Channel. Tom has forecast and reported on weather events across Australia and globally for two decades while also providing commentary on interannual variability and climate change.
Temperatures across south-east Australia have plummeted during the past 48 hours, leading to the coldest spring weather in decades.
There are growing signs Australia's most impactful climate driver, La Niña, will develop during the coming months.
Spring's infamous variability will be on full display this weekend, delivering a blast of cold Antarctic air and potentially the coldest September weather in decades.
The extreme weather variability observed across Australia in late August will become even more pronounced through the first days of spring.
Multiple wind warnings have been re-issued for south-east Australia as another powerful cold front approaches from the Southern Ocean. The powerful westerlies could life maximums as much as 12 above average on the east coast – warm enough to threaten winter records from Sydney to Brisbane.
Temperatures across the Kimberley have reached 41.6 degrees Celsius, establishing a new national record for winter temperatures.
Above-average temperatures of up to 17 degrees Celsius were recorded in Australia this week. But with a polar blast on the horizon, the warm weather could be gone as fast as it came.
Above-average temperatures are forecast all across Australia as we reach the tail end of winter. But is the cold weather truly behind us?
The word on the street seems unanimous — it feels like one of the coldest winters in living memory. But what does the data actually say?
The temperature above the east Antarctic coastline warmed by about 50 degrees Celsius in a week earlier in July. The event, called a Sudden Stratospheric Warming has the potential to impact Australia's weather through August and possibly well into spring.
After an unprecedented year without snow in 2023, elevated parts of NSW are finally turning white.
A rapidly deepening low-pressure system in the Tasman Sea will track towards the coast this weekend, the precursor to a bout of severe winter weather across eastern Australia.
Three separate cloud bands sweeping across Australia during the coming week are likely to drop at least a few millimetres of rain on every patch of ground south of Brisbane to Geraldton.
A closer look at the Bureau of Meteorology's individual location observation pages sparked online debate and confusion among meteorologists and weather watchers as to whether or not a new record was actually reached.
The abnormal pressure is having a significant impact on the nation's weather, including extreme low overnight temperatures over south-east states and a lengthy stretch of showery days along the eastern seaboard.
Polar air from Antarctica is surging towards south-east Australia, bringing gusty winds, showers and low-level snow. While midwinter cold outbreaks are typical, the subsequent weather is nothing short of bizarre.
Parts of south-east Australia have recorded their coldest start to winter in decades, and another polar air mass during the coming week promises to bring strong winds, showers, small hail and alpine snow.
After Melbourne recorded it coldest day in five years yesterday, parts of south-east Australia today shivered to their coldest maximum in up to 27 years.
Up to 250 millimetres of rain could soak parts of south-east NSW during the next 24 hours as another major rain event unfolds across the state.
As the world hits an alarming climate milestone, a new report by a US research team shows the staggering amount of extreme heat days each country experienced last year, with the majority made more likely by human-induced climate change.
A strange cloud formation known as roll clouds have appeared in the skies across eastern NSW. Many Sydney residents have taken to social media sharing photos of the formation and questioned what the clouds are.
A 5,000-kilometre-long cloud band travelling west to east is expected to drench parts of the country over the coming days. Following a second rainband, a separate weather system is threatening to bring heavy rain from NSW to Tasmania from Saturday to Thursday.
A north-west cloud band will engulf Australia this week, signalling a rapid transition away from the monotonous high pressure systems which have dominated recent weather charts.
For the second time this May, Australia's normally mobile weather systems have ground to a halt, with the coming week bringing another prolonged spell of invariable day-to-day weather.
As NSW is soaked by another bout of rain, updated modelling further raises the prospect of La Niña's return in 2024.