You want crazy weather? Come on down to the Crazy Weather Warehouse 'cos we are absolutely GIVING IT AWAY!!!
It's all got to go. We're clearing the lot!
Heatwaves? We've got 'em. Crazy winds? Stocks are running low now but we had plenty on the weekend and it looks like we'll have more in store by Tuesday.
Snow? And how! Here at the Crazy Weather Warehouse we've got every type of weather in store, and it's all on offer at crazy low prices -- or at least crazy low temperatures, or crazy high temperatures as the case may be.
OK, enough of the mock bargain sale TV ad thing. Let's do this straight. Weather is happening across south east Australia. Lots of weather. Weather which is actually quite normal for spring, when winter and summer tend to have a bit of an arm wrestle for supremacy.
In Sydney at 2pm on Monday, the temperature peaked at 33 degrees. At the same time, it was minus 1 at the top of Thredbo, and snowing. Canberra was about halfway in between at 15 degrees, which is such a Canberra place to be.
UPDATE: Here are a couple of fresh pics from Tuesday morning.
BACK TO MONDAY'S STORY...
Anywhere south of the capital has been miserable pretty much all Monday, with temperatures struggling to creep up into the mid teens. Both Melbourne and Adelaide are unlikely to top 16 degrees until much later in the week. Hobart and Canberra will be even cooler.
Sydney will also cop the cool air from down south later on Monday, and will likely stay several degrees below the average October maximum of 22 until much later this week.
The good news is there's not a huge amount of rain around with the current systems, so the existing flood problems should not be exacerbated too much.
This has so far been an interesting spring weather-wise in Australia's south east, with an above-average number of cold fronts making their way north from the Great Australian Bight. In fact, the NSW and Victorian snowfields have had some of the heaviest October snow on record -- the week after the ski season ended.
Here's a remarkable graph. It's the official snow depth chart published by Snowy Hydro, which measures snow independently of ski resort marketing departments, so it can monitor likely water inflow into its dams.
See the red line? It peaks with a maximum depth of 170.5cm on October 6. We're awaiting word on whether this is the latest ever date for a maximum season snow depth, and will update this piece when we find out.
Despite the frequent outbreaks of southerly storm systems, both Sydney and Melbourne are currently registering above average temperatures overall for the month, in yet another clear sign of an overall warmer atmosphere.