Winter blast descends

Snow falls in southeast as gale-force winds hit

SNOW has fallen in parts of southeast Queensland following a brutal cool change, as gale-force winds of up to 81km/ h delivered a dramatic start to the school holidays.

Flakes were seen falling late on Tuesday afternoon at Tenterfield Creek near the NSW border as temperatures plummeted.

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Helen Reid said the southeast was experiencing a “winter blast” that would last for the next two days.

Ms Reid said the Bureau of Meteorology had reports of snow for inlands parts of the New South Wales and Queensland border region.

“It’s a windy day today – that wind chill factor makes it feel very wintry,” she said.

“The weather should start to warm up by tomorrow, but it will be especially frosty in the mornings for the next couple of days.”

Marty Brown from Symphony Hill Wines at Ballandean confirmed a mixture of rain and snow had fallen on the Granite Belt on Tuesday. “It’s freezing,” she said. The gale-force winds that battered Queensland on Tuesday died down on Wednesday, with sunny conditions predicted for the remainder of the first week of school holidays.

There’s been a significant cool change running through the southeast region due to the heavy winds, according to weather bureau meteorologist Peter Claassen.

“There was a trough off the shore this morning, and behind that were the strongest winds,” Mr Claassen said yesterday.

Wind gusts of 72km/h were recorded at Brisbane Airport just after 1pm, while gusts of 81km/h were recorded at Wellcamp Airport near Toowoomba.

Strong winds were also recorded up to Rockhampton and at Proserpine.

The heavy winds mostly died down by Wednesday afternoon, with the bureau forecasting plenty of sunshine in store for the remainder of the week.