Australia is set to shiver through the Easter break as a strong cold front brings severe storm warnings before temperatures plunge across the east coast.
The icy conditions come as a strong cold front attached to a low pressure system tracks across South Australia on Thursday, the Bureau of Meteorology's senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury says.
Storms and showers will continue across southeast South Australia and western and central parts of Victoria on Thursday night, she said.
Good Friday will see the worst of the long weekend's thunderstorms develop, with a risk of severe cells in parts of Victoria, NSW including the Hunter and Queensland.
The Bureau of Meteorology on Friday issued a warning for areas including the Hunter as a trough moving across the state promotes severe thunderstorm development, particularly in the state's northwest.
The bureau warning predicted the possibility of damaging winds and heavy rainfall as a result.
Thunderstorms bringing a risk of heavy rainfall, flash flooding, damaging wind gusts that could bring down trees, along with possible large hail are forecast for parts of central and eastern Victoria, eastern NSW and southeast Queensland.
"It's essential this weekend, whether you're at home or travelling out and about for the Easter break, to keep an eye on the radar so that you know when storms might be reaching you," Ms Bradbury said.
Storms are expected to ease on Saturday as the weather system tracks off the coast, however this will usher in a drop in temperature, as southwesterly flows replace the cold front.
Cool and windy conditions are expected for Tasmania, southern Victoria and elevated parts of South Australia and NSW.
Late on Saturday and through to Sunday, snowfall is possible in Tasmania above 700-800 metres, and in the eastern Victorian and southeast NSW alps, at altitudes above 1500 metres.
Maximum temperatures on Sunday are forecast to reach 13C in Hobart, 15C in Canberra, 21C in Sydney, while Brisbane will reach 29C.
Conditions will ease on Easter Sunday for inland and northern NSW, through to Brisbane as well as inland Victoria, however showers are expected to continue in southern Victoria and Tasmania.
The bureau is also monitoring a potential cyclone in the Arafura Sea off the coast of the Northern Territory.
The system, currently a tropical low, is forecast to move west over the Timor Sea on the weekend, and could develop into a tropical cyclone on Monday, northwest of the Kimberly coast.
If the low develops into a tropical cyclone, it will be named "Ilsa".
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