Posted on 10/11/2012 4:28:05 PM PDT by BlackVeil
Snow has fallen across a large part of NSW and the ACT, despite it being over a month into spring.
There have been reports of snow in the Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands, while Canberra has received 10 centimetres.
Yesterday, South Australia witnessed a once-in-a-century October snowfall.
Sydney Ferries has cancelled the Manly service due to the weather, and the Great Western Highway is closed in both directions at Wentworth Falls.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page for photos and reports of the snowfall from ABC listeners.
The Bureau of Meteorology says the snow is a result of a very cold air mass that has moved across NSW. The air mass has caused a deep low to form on the south coast which has produced the snow.
Bureau forecaster Ewen Mitchell says although the snowfall is unusual, it is not unheard of at this time of year.
"I don't think there's been hugely heavy falls. [It's been] fairly widespread," he said. "It's certainly not record breaking in terms that it's happened before."
...Katoomba resident Dawn told ABC 702 Sydney she woke to a white world.
"It's very beautiful and peaceful," she said.
Dangerous roads
Police and inspectors from Roads and Maritime New South Wales are inspecting the New England Highway after heavy snowfalls in the Northern Tablelands overnight. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at abc.net.au ...
I’ve been in Australia once in October...greater Sydney.It was 80 degrees every day.
I was born in Sydney Australia. This is unusual. Has LA ever had snow? I know Florida has had frosts on occasion.
LA has had snow in the last few years (heavy at that), of course you did not see it trumpted in the media because it would embarrass the great ALGORE
S Fl has snow once every 10 years or so .
I recall a few inches dropping
In north Tampa in the 80s
Back in May of 2006, I took a bus tour of the British Isles. There were several Aussie couples on board. One Saturday we were in the Highlands, and it started snowing. It wasn’t a surprise to me because in Central New York, it’s been known to snow here that late. A couple on board the bus asked the tour guide if he could please stop the bus so they could take a picture. They said they had never seen snow before, and their friends back home wouldn’t believe them unless they had a photo to prove it.
Perhaps not the city istelf byt I'll bet the suburbs east of LA get a dusting once in a while.
I know Florida has had frosts on occasion.
Frosts and even brief freezes are not that unusual in most of Florida.Citrus and vegetable growers are always on guard during the winter.Miami has had at least one measurable snowfall in recent years,I remember seeing a newspaper front page with a huge picture.
Ooops,typos.
Yes.
That’s more typical Sydney weather. The heat would come on in Sept, and not stop till next March. Much cooler in recent years.
Los Angeles county has some pretty tall mountains, and yes, they get snow every single year.
When my family and I lived in the northernmost neighborhood of L.A. proper, the snow was never more than ten minutes from our house in winter.
Do Australian calendars run faster than ours in the U.S.?
We're not quite three weeks into autumn up here - how do they get to be over a month into spring?
Pensacola had a 2” snowfall in the winter of ‘72-’73.
That storm dumped 21” on Macon, Ga and still had enough to drop 5”-7” on Quantico.
KTLA News
5:40 a.m. PST, February 28, 2011
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — A wild storm that brought snow and hail to Los Angeles over the weekend has cleared out, but temperatures will remain chilly, forecasters said.
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-california-rain-2011-cold,0,4151998.story
I have a friend from Sydney. The first time she saw snow was when she came to visit me in Cleveland.
Isn’t it even more unusual to have snow in Canberra?
We're not quite three weeks into autumn up here - how do they get to be over a month into spring?
You are joking, right? :)
Yes, but the natives all thought it was cocaine ...
Is Algore in Sydney for one of his famous Global Warming© snake oil shows?
GLOBULL WARMNG? Coldest OCT 8 in 127 years in Baltimore http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/weather/weather-blog/bal-wx-mondays-chill-tied-100yearold-record-in-baltimore-20121009,0,905634.story
Actual AP Headline: ‘Experts: Global Warming Means More Antarctic Ice’ http://ow.ly/2sCheo
Canberra is much closer to the region that gets regular snow than Sydney. What’s unusual is it’s Spring and it is fairly unusual to have snow even in the Winter except for a couple of the mountain areas.
Well, duh - I know that.
Try answering the question that I asked, though.
How is it they are OVER A MONTH into spring, when we are NOT QUITE THREE WEEKS into autumn?
Will this effect the cow races at Mt Compass?
No, I'm not joking. Read the question again.
I saw snowflakes in South Miami in the winter of 77 or 78.
BereanBrain~:” LA has had snow in the last few years (heavy at that), of course you did not see it trumpted in the media because it would embarrass the great ALGORE “
That is why the ‘Greenies’ mantra has been changed from “GLobal Warming” to “GLobal CLimate Change”
And they always want Carbon Tax (Tax increases for government that really doesn’t change anything ).
Just more money for various programs ( owned by thier own bundlers)
“Is Algore in Sydney for one of his famous Global Warming© snake oil shows?”
Too funny!! That was my first thought, you beat me to it!
I was there too but they got a northern Florida college chick to draw a happy face on a vw bug as a pic for the newspaper.....stupid
Seasons are reversed... spring time snow would be uncommon but possible south of the Twain.
Had a dusting of snow in Riverside....40 miles east of L.A. back in the middle 80’s....
Cool! I was there.
I floated in a pool Christmas Day in Melborne...a few years ago.
The earth's rotation is faster down under. This is because their toilets flush in a different direction.
The short answer is not all countries and regions use the equinoxes to determine seasons.
The Wikipedia answer is as follows:
In the USA and some other regions in the Northern Hemisphere, the astronomical March equinox (currently around 21 March) is often taken to mark the first day of spring, and the Northern solstice is sometimes taken as the first day of summer (usually 21 June in the Northern Hemisphere). In another US tradition, 2 February, Candlemas, can be regarded as the start of spring if it is mild (see Groundhog Day). The US spring season can also be regarded as beginning on the day after Presidents’ Day (the Tuesday after the third Monday in February) and ending on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend (the Friday before the last weekend in May). In South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, spring begins on 1 September, and has no relation to the vernal equinox.”
Australians regard the sight of snow as a great novelty. Upon returning from an overseas trip, one is often asked: “Did you see snow?”
http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-weather-and-the-seasons
Australia
Main article: Indigenous Australian seasons
The indigenous people of Australia defined the seasons by what was happening to the plants, animals and weather around them. This led to each separate tribal group having different seasons, some with up to eight seasons each year. However most modern Aboriginal Australians and non-aboriginal Australians observe the international meteorological definition for the seasons: 1 September (Spring), 1 December (Summer), 1 March (Autumn), and 1 June (Winter).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season
There is the “calendar” and astronomical (equinoxes and solstices) marking of the change of seasons and then there is the meteorological and ecological change of seasons. The former depends on where you are located longitude wise and can vary depending on country and continent – not everyone follows our same calendar based convention for marking the change of seasons.
In other words here on the East Coast in the Mid-Atlantic where I live, the calendar said autumn technically began on September 22, at 10:49 A.M. EDT. But the weather can be very summer like through mid October. But if I lived much farther north, say in northern Maine or Canada for instance, autumn, meteorologically and ecologically speaking “autumn” probably started well before September 22nd. Likewise if I lived in South Carolina, “autumn” won’t start for a few more weeks regardless of what the calendar says.
Yup,got it
...spring time snow would be uncommon but possible south of the Twain.
What/where is "the Twain"?
That would depend however on what part of Australia they were from. Some parts of Australia - the southern most regions, get quite snow, especially in the mountainous regions.
It would be analogous to saying that an American from Miami after visiting Switzerland being asked by others from Miami “Did you see snow?” An American from Minnesota wouldn’t be asked that question. Australia is a very big country with a wide range of climates. Have you never heard of the movie “The Man from Snowy River” – great movie BTW.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_Mountains
For you and anyone else who missed the point, Woodman. Regardless if their seasons are reversed from ours, the spring equinox in Australia exactly coincides with our Autumnal equinox, therefore the time elapsed from their spring should be exactly the same amount of time that has elapsed from our Autumn, and that is what Izzy was referring to. Therefore if we are only about 3 weeks into autumn then Australia can only be about 3 weeks into their spring, not over a month into it.
Apparently Izzy thinks FReepers have brains enough to figure that type of thing out, but evidently some don't.
Canberra is somewhat close to the only place it regularly snows in the Australian winter. The appropriately named Snowy Mountains. Nevertheless I am not sure. The ACT mentioned in the article stands for Australian Capitol Territory and includes Canberra so they did get snow in this time.
In the early days of European settlement, when Australia was settled by military personnel and convicts and everybody was dependent on the government for supplies, both soldiers and convicts were issued with new clothing where necessary on the 1st day of each month. They had two uniforms - summer and winter. By the 1st December, temperatures in the area around Sydney (the first settlement) were already extremely warm - too warm to safely wear winter uniform, so that became the date that summer uniform was issued. Our mild (by European standards) winter meant that issuing winter uniform six months later at the start of June, didn't cause problems (while it can start getting cold in April and May, it's still not bad compared to Europe), and so that was what was done. Over time, these dates became the official start dates for summer and winter for all government purposes and we wound up with four seasons of three calendar months each.
It doesn't work perfectly - March, which is officially part of Autumn is often a very hot month, but it's what we've wound up with.
OK, so THAT's what I was wondering. The government (and therefore the general populace, I suppose) has adopted their own seasonal start dates of Sept 1, Dec 1, etc.
So, by that calendar, they are over a month into spring.
You learn something every day. Thanks for your explanation.
Although I've never been there during their winter my limited experience at other times of the year is that the climate is pretty mild...certainly when compared to the winters of Minnesota or even parts of Georgia,for example.The one exception to that "moderate weather" observation that I experienced was a visit to the "outback" in early March.My God was it hot!
Because in the Southern Hemisphere we manage to be punctual and start our seasons on the first day of the month, not three weeks later.
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