Snow Alert – 15-20cm Inbound to the Aussie Alps
With any luck we’ll be doing a bit of this in a few weeks Image:: Thredbo
Mountainwatch | Snow Alert
SNOW ALERT
Snow Likelihood rating: There is divergence amongst the models, but there’s snow on the way.
Updated: May 25, 2016
Get ready Australia, it’s our turn this week. There’s a very nice whack of cold air getting all set to slam into some moisture over the next few days, and there’s a good chance the Aussie hills are going to look a lot more white come Sunday.
Any keen observers out there may have noticed that the forecast models have been jumping around quite a bit over the last week, and this system could have gone either way. So we turned to The Grasshopper to set us on the straight and narrow: “Buckle up and get ready for a major change to colder and snowier weather over the coming days.” he told us.
“Strong north-westerly winds will blow across the Aussie Alps today in advance of a cold front approaching from the west. Winds will shift around to the west tomorrow as the front passes over marking a change to much colder conditions than we have seen lately. Rain showers will gradually turn to snow as the freezing level drops from 2500m tomorrow morning to 1500m by tomorrow evening as the colder air digs in. Light snow showers and flurries will continue to fall on Friday down to 1100m in the front’s wake. The main pulse of snow comes from a second low which zips through the Bass Strait from Friday night into Saturday before spinning into the Tasman on Saturday evening.
“At the moment, total snowfall amounts look to be in the 10-25cm range down to 1500m by Saturday evening. This is higher than what has been shown in our automatic forecasts lately which seem to be underplaying this event compared with other sources of information. Welcome to winter, but don’t get too complacent as calmer and milder weather is on the way.
So that’s it for the moment, time to get warm and cosy and watch it all happen. We’ll have an Opening Weekend forecast out for Australia later today. Let it snow!
Daily forecasts by The Grasshopper will begin on June 1st.
