Weekend snowfalls in Southern QLD

[Ken Kato]

Southern QLD had its once-per-year-or-two snowfalls on Saturday as colder W to SW winds and moisture being dragged up the rear flank of a complex low, combined with a pool of cold air aloft with an upper level low to cause showers of rain and ice pellets to turn into snow for a short time just north of Stanthorpe. Satpic loop via Weatherzone attached.

An occluded front also wrapped around the rear flank of this system.

Brief snow flurries were also observed in places such as on Mt Barney.

But very little accumulation due to the snow occurring in the afternoon with temps being a few degrees above 0C, and the snowfalls were nowhere near as big as those in years like 2015 and 1984.

I went for a snowchase on Saturday and here's a couple of videos I took near Dalveen in Southern QLD (elevation about 900m):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12gkrLjyvO62-boQyszjBIYCwEisKNIrM/view?usp=sharing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTImbcorfwU

The snow was a lot more hardcore on the Northern Tablelands of NSW where the major accumulations were enough to cause over 100 cars to become trapped as well as downed trees/branches and power outages. Guyra was one of the focal points of this heavy snow.

And of course, there was the heavy rain, some flooding, and damaging winds in central parts of eastern NSW as well.

Ken.

[Blair Trewin]

UNOFFICIAL

Overall, I'd probably assess it as an event of comparable scale to 1984 in the most affected areas (essentially a band running NW-SE through Armidale), but much less extensive - as Ken says, the 1984 event had significant settled snow in Queensland.

Blair

UNOFFICIAL

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From: aust...@googlegroups.com <aust...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Ken Kato <kka...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 5, 2025 8:21 PM
To: Austpacwx <aust...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [austpacwx] Weekend snowfalls in Southern QLD

 

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[Ken Kato]

Indeed and when it comes to significant settled snow in Southern QLD, 2015 was up there as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QODJcq7sPeI (generally not as much as 1984 though):

SE QLD Snowchase - 16th/17th July 2015 These were the greatest snow depths that the highlands of SEQ had seen since 1984 and snow fell 3 times within 6 days during that week.Rundown of what happen... www.youtube.com

By the way, sorry to anyone who tried to load up the video links in my previous email but couldn't - I didn't realise their viewing permissions were automatically set to Restricted by default.

I've set them to Public now so they should work.

Ken.

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From: aust...@googlegroups.com <aust...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Blair Trewin <blair....@bom.gov.au>
Sent: Tuesday, August 5, 2025 9:56 PM
To: aust...@googlegroups.com <aust...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [austpacwx] Re: Weekend snowfalls in Southern QLD

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[Steve Sgalowski]

I was in Guyra august  1,2 ken .

I noticed with a friend , it was not normal  setup.

No wind af all, wind when around 5km under, at bend lemond. 

And snow not normal, left  residue  on wind  screen , and did pour rain all night aksk before snow started 5 am 2nd august .

Stephen 

Yours  Faithfully
Stephen Galowski

Steve.s...@gmail.com

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[Ken Kato]

Yes, it was a very moisture-laden setup indeed which really boosted the snowfall amounts.

Ken.

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Subject: Re: [austpacwx] Re: Weekend snowfalls in Southern QLD

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[Andrew Miskelly]

Nice shot of the falling flakes, Ken.

Yes, the waterlogged nature of snow from these events (deep subtropical moisture over shallow ex-polar air) also contributes to its rapid demise. I've never seen a foot of snow vanish so quickly! Helped also, of course, by the mild Tasman Sea air that eventually made it to the Tablelands behind the fronts you noted.

Andrew

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[Ken Kato]

Indeed Andrew - I know someone who lives in Guyra and the photos he showed me are a good illustration of that. White winter wonderland one day with deep snow, virtually all gone by two days later.

Ken.

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Sent: Wednesday, August 6, 2025 8:37 AM

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