Snow falls across Launceston in a rare event
Snow fell to low levels in the north overnight in what some are calling a once in a lifetime event. SEE THE SNOWFALL HERE>>
Tasmania
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SNOW has fallen in Launceston overnight on what some are calling a once in a lifetime experience.
A community-based weather observation group, Tasmanian Weather Watch, stated that snow was falling in the city just before 2am.
“This is a night I don’t think anyone in Launceston will be forgetting for a very long time,” the post said.
“Geez, when did Launceston ever see this?”
The post also reported a large number of trees and branches had fallen in the area.
Trevallyn resident Trevor Ewington was shovelling snow off the poor path before 9am on Wednesday morning.
The 80-year-old said he had never seen snow in Launceston the 40 years he had lived there.
“It’s a one-off thing,” he said.
Mr Ewington said he had seen snow at Prospect about 30 years ago, “but nothing like this”.
“At the bus stop across the road there was about 20 kids playing in the snow on the grass,” Mr Ewington said.
Metro workers Scott Shepard and Shane Davis were called to assist a bus that was stuck at a stop in Trevallyn just before 9am.
Mr Sheppard said the bus was stuck on ice and snow and the pair used warm water, brooms and shovels to free it.
“This is a once in a lifetime thing,” he said.
Jesse De Vries moved to Launceston from Sydney only recently and said his daughter was scared when she woke up and saw the snow.
He said he had never seen snow settle so low.
“We only just moved here, so I’m assuming this happens every year does it?”
The Bureau of Meteorology observed almost 45mm of rain falling overnight in Launceston.
Overnight, the mercury hit a low of -0.1C at 9pm while winds peaked at 41km/h at 2am.
REPORTER TIM MARTAIN’S SNOW EXPERIENCE
Snow started falling in Launceston at 6pm Tuesday night, as I was driving home from work, big fat flakes of snow drifting down and settling on the road.
The sight of it was so alien and absurd that I laughed most of the way home.
It kept falling on and off for the rest of the night, broken by the occasional noisy fall of rain in between.
I found it difficult to go to sleep because all I wanted to do was sit up and watch the white puffs falling outside the window in complete silence, not a breath of wind.
The power died shortly after midnight, leaving us without heating for the night and a very cold morning that involved breakfast by candlelight.
But the view outside more than made up for the cold milk on cereal and “uncooked toast”.
All of Launceston was covered by a layer of crisp snow, in the hills, the mountains and all the way down at sea level in the bottom of the valley.
I grew up here and I have never seen anything like this in my life.
Needless to say, the kids were beside themselves. As soon as breakfast was finished, we were all outside, scraping up some (admittedly, kinda muddy) snowmen and throwing some snowballs in our woefully inadequate snow attire.
Our power is still down this morning and looks like it might be for most of the day. It’s almost as cold inside as outside. And hot coffee sounds like the closest thing to heaven right now.
But every time I look out the window and see the entire city under that white blanket, I can’t help but giggle like my kids are.
It’s ridiculously beautiful.
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