Sydney shivers through one of coldest days in 25 years as snow blankets NSW
The cold snap has blanketed regional cities and towns across the state including Orange in the state’s Central West, Oberon in the Central Tablelands and Blackheath in the Blue Mountains.
Ms Woodhouse said most places had snow above elevations of about 800 metres but it also fell in some locations towards 500 metres, including Inverell and Coonabarabran.
A number of roads in the Central West are closed due to snow and ice coverage with motorists advised to avoid unnecessary travel. They include:
- The Mitchell Highway is closed between Northern Distributor Road in Orange and Millthorpe Road in Shadforth.
- The Escort Way is closed between Northern Distributor Road in Orange and Peabody Road in Boree.
- Chifley Road is closed between Bells Line of Road in Bell and Hartley Valley Road in Lithgow.
- Ilford Sofala Road is closed about five kilometres west of the Castlereagh Highway in Ilford.
Some local roads in these areas are also closed.
Snow near the Queensland border in the Northern Tablelands could fall on Thursday while sleet was recorded on Wednesday.
The ski-fields received a major dump of snow overnight, with Perisher recording about half a metre by 9am on Thursday and expecting more.
Ms Woodhouse said the cold air would start to move offshore on Friday.
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“Overnight tonight, we’ll start to see those windy conditions develop across the south-east of the state and that will spread through to the South West Slopes,” she said. “We’re looking at another cool air mass moving across the state during the second half of next week.”
Weatherzone meteorologist Graeme Brittain, speaking just after 8am on Thursday, said cloud cover built up over Sydney in the previous few hours was helping to keep temperatures cold.
He said forecast temperatures in central Sydney were about 6 degrees below average for this time of year.
“It’s quite a common theme across NSW – about 6 to 8 degrees at least below average in terms of the max temperature,” Mr Brittain said.
“Again that’s due to cloud and the very cold air mass as well as low pressure systems.”
He said snowfall on Thursday was most likely in the Barrington Tops and the Northern Tablelands.
“Snowfall is a very good chance down to about 800 to 900 metres,” he said.
“[But] it’s probably going to be lower than that.”
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Source: | This article originally belongs to smh.com.au
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