Australia’s southeast shivers through ‘widespread polar’ cold snap

A ‘polar’ cold snap sweeping across the nation’s eastern states bringing freezing nights and frosty mornings is set to hang around this week.

The cold snap sweeping across nation’s eastern states is set to hang around until at least the end of the week.

Queensland, NSW, the ACT, Victoria and Tasmania have all shivered through freezing nights and frosty mornings, with temperatures falling to below zero in all states.

Snow has also fallen in Tasmania and alpine Victoria, with more snow on the way for the Apple Isle in coming days.

The temperature is set to drop to as low as 7C in Melbourne on Friday morning, while Sydney is set to shiver through 9C on Thursday.

Canberra will fall to -3C on Wednesday and 0C on Thursday with morning frost and fog, and the temperature in Hobart will get down to 4C on Friday.

Inland Australia has seen widespread frosty mornings over the past few days.

Frost has been forecasted again across inland NSW, southern Queensland and parts of South Australia on Wednesday before it eases back to just a few patches on Thursday.

Snow will also fall to 1300m in central Tasmania on Thursday.

Sky News chief meteorologist Tom Saunders said the cold spell developed late last week as a series of four cold fronts swept across southeast Australia within four days.

“Behind the fronts modified polar air has now settled over southeast Australia and combined with calm, clear nights is leading to widespread frost,” he said.

It was very chilly across eastern parts of Victoria on Tuesday night, with frost areas in the northeast. Picture: Bureau of Meteorology

Southern #Qld has shivered through patches of frost for another morning, but with overnight temps set to increase gradually in the coming days, we're likely to see less widespread frost as the days go by. ❄️ https://t.co/y2LFGWs8mf#QldWeatherpic.twitter.com/0skvw2M6Ue

— Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) May 18, 2021

“It’s not unusual to have late autumn cold spells but this event has seen temperatures drop to levels only seen every couple of years outside of the winter season.”

The cold snap hasn’t broken any records – yet – but a number of towns have shivered through their coldest May morning in a few years.

Canberra’s minimum of -5.4C on Sunday was their coldest in six years for May, while Mitchell in Queensland had a low of -2.9C on Monday morning, its coldest temperature for May in 15 years.

On Tuesday morning, Sydney dropped to 8.7C, while Canberra shivered through -3.6C, Orange -3.5C, Launceston -1.4C, Bendigo 3.8C and Roma -1.2C.

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