On Air Now

Mike on Breakfast

6:00am - 10:00am

  • 01723 336444

Now Playing

Video shows Australian towns blanketed in thick layer of snow during 'unusual' weather event

A slew of Australian towns have been blanketed with their thickest layer of snow in decades, as wild weather swept across the east of the country.

As much as 40cm (16 inches) of snow fell in northern parts of New South Wales on Saturday, the most since the mid-1980s, Miriam Bradbury, a meteorologist at Australia's weather bureau, said.

She said parts of neighbouring state Queensland also saw snow for the first time in 10 years.

The New South Wales State Emergency Service said unprecedented snow, coupled with heavy rain and thunderstorms in other parts of the state, has led to more than 1,455 incidents over the weekend.

This included more than 100 vehicles being stranded on major roads and tens of thousands of homes losing power.

A multi-agency search is also under way for a 26-year-old woman who was swept away in floodwaters in the Hunter Valley region, after the driver of a car she was in tried to travel through floodwater, New South Wales Police said.

The driver of the car, a 27-year-old woman, was rescued without any injuries. The search is due to continue on Monday, the force said.

Despite rain easing on Sunday, some parts of New England in the north of New South Wales were told to evacuate before 4pm due to flooding.

Read more from Sky News:
Pro-Palestine protest so busy it was 'perilous'
First volcano eruption in 600 years in Russia's far east

Major flooding is expected to occur in low-lying parts of Gunnedah, New England, on Monday, as well as Raymond Terrace in the Hunter Region, the New South Wales State Emergency Service said.

While a yellow weather warning for snow remains in place for the Northern Tablelands until 2am local time tomorrow.

Climate change has made Australia's weather more volatile in recent years, meteorologist Ms Bradbury said, but this event was still unusual.

She said: "What makes this event unusual is how much snow we had but also how widespread, covering quite a large part of the northern tablelands."

Sky News

(c) Sky News 2025: Video shows Australian towns blanketed in thick layer of snow during 'unusual' weather event

Did you find this article useful?

This is the Coast is committed to providing a daily local news service for the Yorkshire Coast. We are a small locally owned and operated business which employs professional journalists and reporters. We do not receive any public funding or grants and we are entirely funded by our local commercial operations. We enjoy fabulous support from local businesses who work with us on their advertising and marketing campaigns, but the cost of providing high quality, well researched, fact checked local news coverage is significant.

If you appreciate what This is the Coast does, and would like to help support our journalism, please consider supporting us on a monthly basis today.

A small contribution from all our readers would really help support independent journalism for the Yorkshire Coast.

More from Technology

Follow Us

Get Our Apps

Our Apps are now available for iOS, Android and Smart Speakers.

  • Available on the App Store
  • Available on Google Play
  • Just ask Amazon Alexa
  • Available on Roku

Today's Weather

  • Scarborough

    Light rain shower

    High: 21°C | Low: 12°C

  • Filey

    Light rain shower

    High: 22°C | Low: 12°C

  • Whitby

    Light rain shower

    High: 22°C | Low: 12°C

  • Bridlington

    Light rain shower

    High: 22°C | Low: 12°C

  • Hornsea

    Light rain shower

    High: 22°C | Low: 13°C

  • Driffield

    Light rain shower

    High: 22°C | Low: 12°C

News