Ski season kicks off early in NSW, after a cold start to winter

THE cold front that has hit south eastern Australia has an upside ... an early start to the ski season.

Perisher is pictured as it's coated in a thick blanket of snow on the second day of winter 2015. Picture: Supplied

THE cold front that has hit south eastern Australia brining with it freezing temperatures and snow has an upside; an early start to the ski season.

Thredbo and Perisher today announced it would be opening from Friday.

Friday Flat will be opened ahead of the weekend while The Cruiser area is expected to be open for Saturday and possibly Highnoon.

At Perisher the Village 8 Express opens Friday with the Quad Express to be ready on Saturday for skiing and boarding.

Meanwhile Sydney shivered through its coldest June morning in five years.

With winter just two days old, the mercury plummeted to a frosty low of 6.1C this morning, catching a number of Sydneysiders off guard.

While the forecast for today is mostly sunny, the top temperature is only expected to reach 17C.

This cyclist is probably wishing he was on the train. Picture: John Grainger

It’s a great opportunity to get out those pink beanies. Picture: John Grainger

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Miranda Langton said a number of factors contributed to the cold start.

“We had a large mass of cold air moving across the state and then some quite strong southerly winds combined with some clear skies,” she said.

“While the apparent temperature is 6.1C, with the windchill it would have felt like zero degrees.”

Standing with a group waiting for a #Sydney bus. I feel we all need to huddle like penguins. F#&@ing cold!

— Guy Jamieson (@GuyItchy) June 1, 2015

SYDNEY Y U SO COLD

— Catherine Kelleher (@catcallmusic) June 1, 2015

It's so cold this Morning in Sydney 6 degrees in the City, 0 degrees in the west & -2 degrees in the Blue Mtns plus 30cms of snow in snowys

— Chris Caggs (@ChrisCaggs) June 1, 2015

Ms Langton said lows of 8C were forecast for the next three mornings. And there’s more cold weather to come.

A spokesman for BOM said Sydney was set for cold nights and mild, average June temperatures of about 17C all week — but it was likely to continue to feel much cooler.

“We’ve had a cold front move through overnight building some quite colder and drier air behind it, and this cold air has come from a southern part of the continent,” he said.

“When it feels quite cold out there, it’s because the air is quite dry, particularly when you feel that southerly blowing, it feels quite cold.”

Amelie Kordina, six, on the cliffs at Bronte looking for whales this morning. Picture: Bob Barker.

Thredbo ski resort is pictured after it was coated with 30cm of snow yesterday. Picture: Supplied

Those heading to the snow, however, couldn’t be happier with the start of winter delivering a good dump of snow across parts of the state’s south east.

In Perisher, about 30cm of snow fell overnight and was still dumping across Perisher, Smiggin Holes, Blue Cow and Guthega this morning.

Thredbo was equally blessed, with 30cm of snow up on the ski fields and 7-10cm with further snowfalls later in the week.

Snow makers in Thredbo and Perisher are working overtime with the cold temperatures with scores of snow guns blazing

Thredbo Village received 7-10cm of snow overnight.

Meanwhile, for the Sydney coastal areas, south-westerly winds of between 15km/h will cause large and powerful surf conditions in some coastal areas, making rock fishing, swimming and surfing hazardous.

Wednesday will be partly cloudy with patchy fog and light frost in the outer west in the early morning.