Wintry weather is forecast to return to much of south-eastern Australia as a series of cold fronts move across the country.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued severe weather warnings for South Australia on Tuesday and warnings were in place for damaging winds in Victoria and New South Wales on Wednesday.
The cold blast is forecast to continue through the remainder of the week and was expected to reach as far north as the granite belt of Queensland, where snow flurries are possible in elevated areas on Saturday morning.
Much of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania are forecast to experience colder weather from Wednesday. Snow is forecast down to 400m in Victoria, including the hills surrounding Melbourne, on Friday and Saturday morning.
“It is a series of cold fronts and one is pushing through tomorrow and more throughout the week,” Sarah Scully, a senior meteorologist at the B0M said.
“It’s basically a return to really wintry conditions through south-eastern Australia.”
Scully said the cold front pushing through South Australia on Tuesday would reach Victoria, Tasmania and NSW on Wednesday.
She said widespread showers, gusty winds and possibly even severe storms were forecast for NSW and north-west Victoria.
The Sydney metropolitan area was expected to escape the worst of the conditions but the severe weather will likely reach surrounding areas up to Newcastle and as far south as Bega.
“Damaging winds are the severe weather phenomenon that we’re expecting,” Scully said.
Gusts of 60-70km/h and up to 90km/h are likely around Sydney and in parts of southern, central and western NSW.
On Tuesday, the bureau also raised the chance of a La Niña forming in the Pacific in 2020 to 70%, which is about three times the norm.
A La Niña would typically bring above-average rainfall during winter and spring, particularly across eastern, central and northern Australia.
“It typically also brings cooler and cloudier days, more tropical cyclones, and an earlier onset of the first rains of the wet season across the north,” the bureau’s manager of climate operations, Andrew Watkins, said.
