Snow in New South Wales - a week before summer

[depakid]

Gale force winds and snow in the NSW central-west are keeping State Emergency Service volunteers busy, just a week from the start of summer. Since Friday, SES crews have responded to 18 requests for assistance in the Blayney, Bathurst, Lithgow and Orange areas.

Most of the damage has been caused by falling trees, but local roads are also being monitored after snow falls on Saturday night. The road between Bathurst and Oberon is closed but all other roads are open.

SES Central West Region Controller, Craig Ronan, said the weather conditions were particularly unseasonable.

Blizzard conditions are also anticipated in alpine areas of the Southern Tablelands, South West Slopes and the ACT.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/snow-in-nsw--a-week-before-summer/2008/11/23/1227375028407.html

[Ecumenist]

1. OMG, I did't even know it snowed in Australia outside of the

high altitudes. Something's not right. AT ALL.

[depakid]

2. It's fairly rare- but it does happen. Though NOT in November!

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/11/23/orange_snow_wideweb__470x311,0.jpg
Wrong season … at Millthorpe, near Orange.

It was also damn cold and blustery in Newcastle on the coast 100 miles north of Sydney. More like November in Oregon than NSW.

The whole of the east coast (and Victoria) has been experiencing extreme weather.

A FOUR-YEAR OLD CHILD swimming in a Central Queensland water hole was swept away yesterday when a flooded dam ruptured, spilling 6000 megalitres of water.

The dam burst following a weekend of unseasonal weather that battered eastern Australia. Snow fell, gales lashed the coast, knocking down trees and power lines, and crops were extensively damaged in a bout of unseasonal weather that brought an icy chill to eastern Australia.

Orange was expected to be declared a natural disaster zone after snowfalls obliterated millions of dollars' worth of hail netting and uprooted orchards, while roads between Bathurst and Oberon were closed as 10 centimetres of snow fell around the Blue Mountains.

Rockhampton police said rescuers and a helicopter were searching for a girl, aged three or four, who was washed away when an inflatable rubber bladder on the Bedford Weir, near Blackwater, burst.

A spokesman for the NSW Bureau of Meteorology said the chilly spell was caused by cold air, originating from Antarctica, moving up the NSW coast. A severe weather warning was issued for the NSW coast south from Wooli, near Grafton, to Gabo Island, with winds of 65 kmh, and gusts of up to 90 kmh predicted last night.

More than 1000 homes across the Illawarra and Blue Mountains were left without power on Saturday as gale-force winds uprooted trees and sent branches crashing into electricity lines.

Tim Hall, a fruit farmer near Orange, said his property had more than $300,000 in damage caused by more than 10 centimetres of snow and strong winds that flattened dozens of fruit trees. He said he had never seen anything like it, and neither had his neighbours.

More: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/young-child-feared-drowned-as-storms-wreak-havoc/2008/11/23/1227375061999.html