Strong to damaging winds will continue
for parts of south eastern Australia through the remainder of today,
with a cold burst to follow this weekend. Now we still do
have severe weather warnings for damaging winds
current for east and Alpine, Victoria, south east Alpine New South Wales
with that risk of damaging gusts continuing through this afternoon
and evening before easing later today. We've already seen some very strong winds
throughout the south east, including wind gusts of over 130 kilometers
an hour in the Grampians in western Victoria, over 115 kilometers an hour
through the eastern ranges. Now with those strong winds, blizzards
are still a hazard on the New South Wales side of the border, which could create
really dangerous visibility conditions. Now I said these winds will be easing
later today, that is because the front that is driving those strong winds
is slipping away to the south. It'll take those strongest winds with it
later this afternoon and evening as it moves off to the south east. We'll still see showers
through eastern Victoria and much of New South Wales, but the winds are going to be
taking a step back a bit. Going into tomorrow, those showers
gradually contract towards the east coast and we start to see a drying trend
for much of Tasmania, Victoria and southern New South Wales. We’ll see the wet weather and possible
thunderstorms continuing through north east New South Wales, however,
with some moderate falls possible. This more settled break in the weather will be short lived
however, because the next cold front is quickly approaching,
it will reach the south eastern states later on Friday,
sweeping through during Saturday and bringing further showers
and much colder air with it. Now, through the course of Saturday going into Sunday,
we are going to see the risk of small hail for parts of Tasmania, southern Victoria
and south eastern New South Wales. The coldest air will be moving up
late Saturday, going into Sunday, and we're going to see a significant
temperature drop across the south eastern states between Friday or Saturday
and Sunday. Having a quick breakdown
of those temperatures now, we can see that the today's maximum temperatures
are still on the milder side of things, 14 degrees through the far
south east, 16 for Adelaide, up to 23 degrees in Sydney in the mild
northerly winds ahead of this front. Even tomorrow
in the wake of that frontal system, we're not really seeing a huge impact
on those temperatures. Still up to 16 degrees in Melbourne, 15 in Hobart and fairly warm
further north as well. But behind that coldest air as we go into Saturday
is when we'll see the temperatures shift. So 13 degrees is all
we're forecasting as a daytime temperature for Adelaide on Saturday,
12 degrees in Melbourne and Hobart. It isn’t until Sunday that that cold air
reaches Sydney however, and we see the temperature dropping from 21 degrees back
to around 16 to finish off the weekend. Now in addition to the temperatures
themselves, the wind chill factor and the showers that may be ongoing at
times will make the ‘feels like’ temperature feel even lower
than the actual temperature. Now, of course, with cold air
lowering temperatures, we also have a lowering snow level
over the next couple of days. A few flurries of snow moving across
the south east with this first front. But with the second front, we're going
to see that snow level dropping much more significantly,
potentially down as low as 400 meters across parts
of southern Tasmania later on Saturday, going into early Sunday, as low
as 600 or 700 meters on the mainland. However, it is worth noting
that as we go into the later part of Saturday, into Sunday, that's
when our showers start to ease back. So we may not see as much snow
as you'd expect across the weekend period. We still are looking at another 10 to 15 centimeters
or so across our alpine resorts, but it won't be the heavy blanket
of snow we had last week. So between the winds
today and the cold to come this weekend, you can find all the details via the
Bureau's website or the BOM social media. Stay safe and we'll catch you next time.