Snow falls in Tasmania while rest of country swelters through heatwave

While parts of Australia sweltered through the hottest November on record, regions in Tasmania woke to a dusting of summer snow.

Tuesday night’s blustery cold front brought falls to the summit of Hobart’s Mount Wellington and elevated areas of the central highlands on the first and second day of summer. 

Great Lake Hotel duty manager Truen Johns said sleet in the early evening turned to snow which was several inches deep by the morning.

‘I woke up to everything covered in white,’ he said.

Bureau of Meteorology’s Tristan Oakley explained that Tasmania’s low pressure system is what led the state to miss out on the heatwave over the weekend. 

Residents in Tasmania woke up to snow (pictured) while the rest of the country sweltered through a heatwave 

Sydneysiders flocked to Bondi Beach last weekend after temperatures soared to 43C 

‘We have a low pressure system moving through Bass Strait and that’s pushed a rain band especially over the northern parts of the state overnight and through Sunday morning,’ he told the Tasmania Examiner.

‘Everywhere else across the country they don’t have this low pressure system. They’ve had quite strong north-west to northerly winds which has dragged warm air from central Australia to northern parts of Victoria and into New South Wales.

‘In this situation, because the low pressure system actually formed pretty much over Victoria, we were spared that really strong north-west and northerly wind that would’ve brought that heat down.’    

Great Lake Hotel duty manager Truen John woke up to see and saw the snow outside his hotel (Pictured)

The snow which hit on the first day of summer was thanks to Tasmania’s low pressure system

Australia experienced the hottest spring on record with the mean temperature reaching 24.53C or 2.03C higher than average (pictured: Snow covering Tasmania) 

Sydney and parts of NSW had a scorching weekend, with the mercury passing 40C in many areas.

‘It’s the other side of the coin really. You get hot air in one spot and it pushes cold air into another spot,’ the Bureau of Meteorology’s Anna Forrest said.

‘The contrast between the hot air on the mainland and the cold air down here gave us the wind.’

The past weekend was Australia’s hottest spring on record with a mean temperature of 24.53C, or 2.03C higher than average. 

It’s well above the increase of 1.81C noted in 2014, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. 

Spring nights were also on average the hottest they have been in more than two decades, with the mean minimum temperature 17.1C or 1.91C above average, surpassing the 1998 record of 1.46C.

On an individual state level, the 2020 season was amongst the six warmest springs on record for all states and the Northern Territory.

Pictured: Bondi Beach on Sunday. Brief relief came on Sunday evening with a southerly buster

Although not record breaking, mean maximum temperatures were also higher than average for virtually all of Australia.

November especially was a scorcher, breaking records as Australia’s hottest in terms of mean, minimum and maximum temperatures.

November’s maximums came in at 2.9C above the 1961-90 average, or 35.4, surpassing the 2.4C higher mark set in 2014.

Last weekend’s heatwave was a big contributor to the records.

A significant number of stations in NSW and South Australia observed record high maximums for the month last weekend, as did a few stations in Victoria.

Eastern Australia’s brutal heatwave has continued with temperatures hitting 48C. Pictured: swimmers cool off in the Bellinger River in northern NSW on Saturday

Part of Queensland also broke records on Monday.

The hottest spring day was recorded at Andamooka in South Australia at 48C on Saturday.

A large number of stations in NSW also observed their warmest November night on record during the same period.

Wanaaring, near Bourke in the state’s northwest, suffered through a 33.8C night on Sunday.

Rainfall brought less relief than usual, at eight per cent below average for the season.

November was particularly dry for the eastern states after a softening of the La Nina, but was wet for the west.

Areas recovering from drought in western NSW welcomed above average rainfall, but longer-term rainfall deficits still persist in many parts of Australia.

Both metrics – the reduced rainfall and increased heat – fit with broader trends driven by climate change.

Australia’s climate has warmed 1.44C on average since 1910, and April-to-October rainfall has reduced over southern Australia for the past few decades.