Sunday may have marked the official start of summer, but winter has returned to the area with snow falling overnight.
Perisher and Thredbo received five centimetres of snow and more is expected to fall throughout most of Monday.
The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast snow to fall above 1300 metres on Monday, which includes elevated parts of the ACT such as Mount Ginini and the Brindabellas.
While suburban parts of the ACT won't receive any snow on Monday, cold conditions have been experienced around the capital.
A low of just 7 degrees hit Canberra on Monday, and a high of just 14 degrees is expected later in the day.
A forecaster at the bureau, Abrar Shabren, said the conditions were driven by a series of cold fronts that were sweeping across south-east Australia bringing unseasonably cool weather.
Summer snow! 🏖❄️5cm overnight & still coming down 🤯🤷🏼♀️ pic.twitter.com/sk88A2klqM
— Perisher Ski Resort (@PerisherResort) December 1, 2019
Strong westerly winds with gusts of up to 40km/h, which are hampering crews fighting bushfires near Braidwood, have made the temperature feel as low as 4 degrees in parts of Canberra.
Areas to the north fire received only 0.5 millimetres in the 24 hours to 9am on Monday.
Showers are expected later on Monday with a 60 per cent chance of rain for Canberra.
The windy conditions are expected to continue into Tuesday, with a forecast low of just 6 degrees.
The chance of snow is expected to drop dramatically in coming days, with only a 20 per cent chance above 1800 metres on Tuesday.
No snowfall has been forecast for later in the week.
While snow during summer is rare, it was not unheard of due to cold weather patterns sweeping across the area, Mr Shabren said.
"It's not unusual but it's definitely unseasonable, and we have seen in the last couple of days unseasonably cold weather and snow conditions," he said.
"For the next few days there'll be similar conditions as the cold front passes."
Snow was seen falling at Perisher last week as the temperature dropped to minus 5 degrees.
A dust haze is also predicted for Canberra later on Monday, but Mr Shabren said the haze should disperse quickly.
"With the series of fronts, there'll be a tinge of dust in the air coming in from the far west," he said.
"However, it will sweep out quite quickly with the front system over the coast and it won't linger for long."
Sunny weather is expected to return to Canberra on Wednesday, with a top of 23 degrees.
The mercury will climb into the high 20s later in the week, and a sunny weekend is forecast with a high of 29 on Sunday.
