Queensland weather: Why we can’t wait for forecast snow to arrive

Snow in the Sunshine State isn’t common and hoped-for falls often disappoint – but when it does arrive it pulls the crowds.

Snow in the Sunshine State isn’t common and hoped-for falls often disappoint - but when it does arrive it pulls the crowds.

I first saw snow on the Queensland Granite Belt in the mid-1980s- a decently heavy fall that blanketed the ground, cut roads in places and sparked an influx of Brisbane residents eager to experience a really wintry winter. It’s a strange thing to leave a chilly Brisbane and just three hours later arrive to see a frozen Girraween National Park covered in white, cars driving around with snowmen on the bonnet - and the trip is well worth it.

The region’s always been a popular spot in winter but the hint of snow in a weather forecast gives it extra appeal - yesterday’s Courier-Mail story on a Bureau of Meteorology prediction of possible snow in the area mid-next week attracted thousands of readers.

Is this Queensland? Photo Josie Carter

Snow being snow, it doesn’t always cooperate with forecasts but when it does the results are impressive: in the 1990s a ‘sheep weather warning’ was accompanied by an Antarctic blast which roared north to the Granite Belt. A Courier-Mail photographer and I stood in a farm paddock and watched spellbound as the far end of the field disappeared behind a wall of white. That snow didn’t settle, at least where we were, but I still remember the cold.

On another trip, we were camped in Girraween on a bitterly cold night - next morning, a dusting of snow on the higher ridges in the park was evidence of a fleeting extreme of weather. Sheets of ice formed on the surface of a creek in the park.

Queenslanders are sure to make the most of the snow if it arrives.

In 2015, snow was again forecast around the northern New South Wales town of Tenterfield, south of Stanthorpe, and my son and I jumped in the car at 4am for a trip across the border. It was cool in Brisbane, the mercury dropped dramatically as we drove through Cunningham’s Gap and continued to drop as we headed south.

There was a surprising amount of traffic on the road and when we reached Tenterfield, we followed a lot of other people on the road up Mount Mackenzie, a peak overlooking the town.

Almost every potential parking spot beside the road on the way up was occupied by cars and four-wheel-drives as locals and visitors from Brisbane and the Gold Coast made the most of a rare weather event.

Snow at Wallangarra in 2015.

The snow wasn’t heavy that year but it was beautiful, the white stunning against the tree ferns and eucalypts on top of the mountain.

Will the skies over Stanthorpe next week deliver a winter wonderland - or a chilly reception? That’s entirely up to the weather gods - but it’s worth the drive regardless.

Snow on Mt MacKenzie in 2015. Picture: Neale Maynard

CURRENT TEMPS & 7-DAY FORECASTS

BRISBANE Queensland

GOLD COAST Queensland

SUNSHINE COAST Queensland

REDCLIFFE Queensland

LOGAN Queensland

IPSWICH Queensland

TOOWOOMBA Queensland

DALBY Queensland

WARWICK Queensland

STANTHORPE Queensland

Originally published as Queensland weather: Why we can’t wait for forecast snow to arrive