Widespread freezes are expected to bring freezing morning temperatures to four states Monday morning, with icy weather continuing.
Eastern Australia has seen mild temperatures over the weekend. However, a cold front moving across the southeast this week will herald classic winter weather with frost. “A widespread frost will develop across the country – starting on Sunday in parts of southern Australia but increasing in size and magnitude through Tuesday and Wednesday,” said Sky News meteorologist Rob Sharpe.
Frost is expected to form across large areas of Victoria, Sydney, the Australian Capital Territory and into southeast Queensland on Monday morning, with icy temperatures likely to persist throughout the week.
Sky News meteorologist Rob Sharpe said the outbreak would start “on a large scale” on Sunday while “getting bigger and bigger through Tuesday and Wednesday”.
“For the southeast, the frost we saw in Canberra on Saturday morning was just a taste of what’s to come early next week,” he said.
The frost is expected to last until 7 a.m. Wednesday, with large areas of frost expected to cause morning temperatures to drop throughout the week.
In NSW, freezing temperatures on Sunday night prompted the Bureau of Meteorology to issue a widespread warning for sheep farmers in the Mid North Coast, Hunter, Northern Highlands, Illawarra, South Coast, Central Highlands, Southern Highlands, North West Slopes and Plains, Central Western Slopes and Plains, South West Slopes and Snowy Mountains.
While Sydney will largely escape the frost, temperatures will drop to a low of 7C and a high of 16C, with a moderate chance of early rain on Monday.
However, southwesterly winds of 25 to 35 km/h can increase the wind chill factor and make temperatures feel cooler than they are.
Melbourne is expected to see a cloudy and cool day with a high chance of rain, with temperatures expected to drop to 7C and rise to 14C on Monday.
Wednesday will be the coldest day of the week, with lows of 3°C and highs of just 13°C.
Melbourne residents are set to experience a cold, wet week with low temperatures. Photo: NewsWire/ Tamati Smith
In South Australia, a frost warning has been issued for the Mount Lofty Ranges, Mid North, Riverland, Murraylands, Upper South East and Lower South East, where temperatures could drop to between -2C and -4C.
In Adelaide, the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting mostly sunny weather, with temperatures ranging from 4 to 15 degrees Celsius on Monday, and 6 to 16 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.
A cold front moving across southwest Australia will also bring storms and rain, with the heaviest rainfall expected on the coast south of Perth.
Although most of the rain has fallen since Sunday afternoon, light showers will continue throughout the week, with the possibility of thunderstorms in Perth’s northern suburbs.
However, the cold snap brought significant amounts of snow to the Australian Capital Territory, highlands in eastern Victoria and the central highlands of New South Wales above 800 metres.
In Thredbo, snowboarders and snowboarders received about 17cm of snow on Sunday morning, with a slight chance of continued snow showers on Monday morning.
Mount Buller Ski Resort in Victoria also reported 16 centimetres of fresh snow between Saturday and Sunday.
