WHITE WONDER
AMAZING SNOW PICTURES
TASMANIA’S late autumn cold snap is almost over.
After a week of snow, hail and wind, warmer weather is on the way.
A severe weather warning forecast for the Furneaux Islands and SouthEast districts has been lifted as a high pressure system builds to the west of Tasmania, bringing milder weather.
But we were still treated to another wintry blast yesterday.
Snow fell to 300m above sea level on Mt Wellington early in the morning but receded to 600m by the time most people started work. By noon, it had receded to 1000m.
The conditions allowed for some stunning reader photos sent into the Mercury over the past few days.
Hobart-based photographer Paul Fleming snapped a photo of snowcovered cars in the Cradle Mountain Hotel car park.
“I saw the weather that was coming through so I came up to Cradle Mountain in the hope that it did snow,” Mr Fleming said.
“The snow on the car gives a bit of an indication of the amount of snow that came through and I’ve just really been following the winter wonderland.”
The snow also resulted in beautiful white-out shots of the Highlands region by Great Lakes Hotel employee Kaylee Hattinger.
“We have 10,000 likes on Facebook and all they want to know about is snow,” she said.
“I made a target of mine to use the Facebook page as an information service, so I try to keep people updated with snow and road conditions rather than people ring around and try and find out anything,” she said.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the low pressure system that brought damaging wind to the state in recent days had moved away to the southeast.
However, the bureau said wind would continue to be monitored and further warnings would be issued if necessary.
Bushwalker and road weather alerts for snow in the Western, Central Plateau, Midlands, Upper Derwent Valley and South East districts have been cancelled, but sheep graziers are still at risk of losing stock exposed to conditions in the area.
A minor flood warning for the Huon River has now been finalised, but gale warnings remain in place for the Lower East and the South East coasts.
Today could reach a top of 15C and possible showers with 16C tomorrow, 15C on Saturday and a partly cloudy 16C on Sunday. There’s a slight chance of a light shower on Wednesday.