Prolonged cold snap in south east to last at least a week

We have a very cold week ahead and I know people say yeah, it's winter, of course it's going to be cold and that's true, but this is even colder than average for winter and lasting for a longer stretch as well and covering a pretty broad area. So we're looking at almost all of those eastern states as being colder than average through the daytimes. But in particular it's going to be cold overnight and early morning temperatures through Tasmania, Victoria, NSW, ACT and much of Queensland as well. And we've had that for the last couple of days with some really chilly days and some very chilly nights, but it's going to last for the next several days as well. OK. And what kind of temps are being forecast in these areas? Yeah. So if we just look at, say, the state capitals, we'll start in the South because I think Hobart is only forecast to get to about 11 or 12° for maybe the next eight days or so, with overnight minimum temperatures down around four or five each night. Melbourne could be seeing 12 to 13 for the next several days, with those overnight minimum temperatures as low as 5 or 6°. Up in Canberra, the daily highs could be about 13, but those overnight lows dipping well into the negatives, including down to a forecast -4° towards the end of the weekend and early next week. Sydney a little warmer, but those highs still about 1617. Those lows about six or seven even up in Queensland, of course, the Sunshine State, Brisbane still getting those daily high temperatures about 20°, but even there, the overnight lows will be dropping to about six or seven at times. Do you expect any records to be broken? Oh, look, it's certainly possible. And over the last few days we've seen a few records, well, not all time records, but we've seen some places clocking their coldest temperatures for the last five years, the last 10 years. And we certainly expect to see more of that over the coming week. It's likely that some places will be having the coldest day of the year, the coldest day of the last decade or so. As to whether we break any all time cold temperature records, it's a bit too early to say. We're possibly not forecasting too many places to get quite that cold, but certainly down towards those coldest the town, towards those coldest temperatures that these tend to receive. Angus, you mentioned that it's probably going to linger around for about a week. What will the conditions look like after that? Well, in the long term forecast, we're actually not seeing any signs of bringing more mild or warmer temperatures to many of those southeastern states, particularly Tasmania, Victoria, even southern and central NSW. So I say about a week, but the next 78910 days could all be below average for these areas. As for Queensland, after the next four or five days, maybe we see the temperature bounce up a few degrees, but it's still going to be, it's still going to be chilly. So I don't expect anything too warm yet in eastern and southeastern Australia. So given the cold snap, does that mean there's any good news for all the ski bunnies out there heading to the ski fields in either NSW or Vic? Well, unfortunately, not a whole lot of good news for the snow for those ski resorts. The next few days. It's cold, but generally looking to be relatively clear and dry, just a bit of light, patchy rain, most of which will miss the mountains where we're hoping to get that snowfall a little bit later on in the picture when we're still looking at cold temperatures, but potentially seeing a little bit of rain and snow. Maybe the second-half of next week, Wednesday to Thursday next week, we're sort of eyeing up the next chance of getting a good dump of snow on those mountains. OK. And just finally, Angus, for those who are curious, you know, why are we seeing this cold snap without getting too technical on us? Yeah, without getting too technical, absolutely. The reason we're seeing the cold snap, and particularly the reason we're seeing it last for so long, is due to a large and very slow moving low pressure system in the Tasman Sea, about halfway between Australia and New Zealand. And that low is steering the wind and it's going to steer the southerly wind, which is the cold wind direction for eastern Australia. But it doesn't move anywhere for five or six or seven days. So we just keep pumping something in that cold southerly air from the Southern Ocean over those eastern states for a long stretch to come.