South-east Australia is shivering through a prolonged spell of bleak wintry weather, a pattern that will linger for at least another week.
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00:00We have a very cold week ahead and I know people say yeah, it's winter, of course it's
00:05going to be cold, and that's true, but this is even colder than average for winter and
00:08lasting for a longer stretch as well, and covering a pretty broad area.
00:13So we're looking at almost all of those eastern states as being colder than average through
00:17the day times, but in particular it's going to be cold overnight and early morning temperatures
00:22through Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, ACT and much of Queensland as well, and we've
00:28had that for the last couple of days with some really chilly days and some very chilly
00:32nights, but it's going to last for the next several days as well.
00:35OK, and what kind of temps are being forecast in these areas?
00:38Yeah, so if we just look at say the state capitals, we'll start in the south because
00:42I think Hobart is only forecast to get to about 11 or 12 degrees for maybe the next
00:46eight days or so, with overnight minimum temperatures down around 4 or 5 each night.
00:51Melbourne could be seeing 12 to 13 for the next several days with those overnight minimum
00:55temperatures as low as 5 or 6 degrees.
00:58Up in Canberra the daily highs could be about 13, but those overnight lows dipping well
01:02into the negatives, including down to a forecast negative 4 degrees towards the end of the
01:07weekend and early next week.
01:08Sydney a little warmer, but those highs still about 16, 17, those lows about 6 or 7.
01:13Even up in Queensland, of course, the Sunshine State, Brisbane still getting those daily
01:17high temperatures about 20 degrees, but even there the overnight lows will be dropping
01:21to about 6 or 7 at times.
01:23Do you expect any records to be broken?
01:25Oh look, it's certainly possible, and over the last few days we've seen a few records,
01:29well not all-time records, but we've seen some places clock in their coldest temperatures
01:33for the last five years, the last ten years, and we certainly expect to see more of that
01:37over the coming week.
01:38It's likely that some places will be having their coldest day of the year, their coldest
01:42day of the last decade or so.
01:44As to whether we break any all-time cold temperature records, it's a bit too early to say.
01:48We're possibly not forecasting too many places to get quite that cold, but certainly down
01:52towards those coldest temperatures that these places tend to receive.
01:56Angus, you mentioned that it's probably going to linger around for about a week.
02:00What will the conditions look like after that?
02:03Well in the long-term forecast, we're actually not seeing any signs of bringing more mild
02:07or warmer temperatures to many of those southeastern states, particularly Tasmania, Victoria, even
02:12southern and central New South Wales.
02:13So I say about a week, but the next 7, 8, 9, 10 days could all be below average for
02:18these areas.
02:19As for Queensland, after the next 4 or 5 days, maybe we see the temperature bounce
02:24up a few degrees, but it's still going to be winter, it's still going to be chilly,
02:27so I don't expect anything too warm yet in eastern and southeastern Australia.
02:31So given the cold snap, does that mean there's any good news for all the ski bunnies out
02:34there heading to the ski fields in either New South Wales or Victoria?
02:38Well unfortunately not a whole lot of good news for the snow for those ski resorts.
02:43The next few days it's cold, but generally looking to be relatively clear and dry.
02:48It's a bit of light patchy rain, most of which will miss the mountains where we're
02:51hoping to get that snowfall a little bit later on in the picture when we're still looking
02:55at cold temperatures, but potentially seeing a little bit of rain and snow maybe the second
03:00half of next week.
03:01Wednesday to Thursday next week we're sort of eyeing up the next chance of getting a
03:05good dump of snow on those mountains.
03:07OK and just finally, Angus, for those who are curious, why are we seeing this cold snap
03:12without getting too technical on us?
03:14Yeah, without getting too technical, absolutely.
03:16The reason we're seeing the cold snap, and particularly the reason we're seeing it last
03:19for so long, is due to a large and very slow moving low pressure system in the Tasman Sea,
03:25about halfway between Australia and New Zealand.
03:28And that low is steering the wind and it's going to steer the southerly wind which is
03:32the cold wind direction for eastern Australia but it doesn't move anywhere for five or six
03:36or seven days so we just keep pumping in that cold southerly air from the southern ocean
03:41over those eastern states for a long stretch to come.
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