'Thundersnow' predicted as icy blast sweeps southern states

Hail, storms, damaging winds and “thundersnow” could sweep across parts of South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, in what the Bureau of Meteorology described on Wednesday as “the strongest weather system this winter” to hit south-east Australia.

Melbourne’s suburbs could be hit by 110km/h winds on Thursday night and Friday morning, while Adelaide and Sydney were also set to experience icy blasts as the storm swept across the country.

In SA on Thursday morning, 4,000 properties had already lost power as thunderstorms built across the state from Ceduna to Renmark. Damaging winds were forecast to buffet Adelaide from early Thursday afternoon, with the possibility of hail “from any time from now”, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s Paul Bierman.

And the icy winds were due to swirl upwards across Victoria and NSW, reaching Sydney by Friday morning, with damaging speeds of up to 70km/h.

On Wednesday evening, the bureau’s manager of the extreme weather desk, James Taylor, told the Australian that thunderstorms could combine with snow – known as thundersnow – in “broad areas” of the south-east.

But Bierman said there was only “a very small chance” this would affect the metropolitan Adelaide area.

For Adelaide, he said Thursday was “the peak day”.

“It’s not too windy around Adelaide at the moment, we do expect it to be developing in the afternoon. We expect the strongest winds to develop this morning and early afternoon, and continue to be fairly windy throughout the afternoon until winds ease this evening.

“There is a chance of hail from any time from now on, and continuing into Friday and into Saturday as well.”

In Victoria, a severe weather warning was issued for nearly the entire state, with winds up to 100km/h in western areas, up to 110km/h in the south-west and central districts, including suburban Melbourne, and 130km/h south-west of Casterton to Cape Otway.

Blizzards were also due to hit the alpine regions above 1,200 metres, stretching into NSW.