www.9news.com.au
8:03pm Aug 21, 2020
A large mass of icy air moving from Antarctica is set to bring a rare "thundersnow" event to Australia's south this weekend.
The phenomenon would see a mix of lightning and snow hit areas around the nation's southeast coast.
Global weather satellites have captured detailed images of the polar-temperature air mass, which looks like a large wave of speckled cloud cover heading north over the Southern Ocean.
Visible 'true colour' satellite image of the polar air mass, seen in the blue circle, on Wednesday afternoon. (Himawari-8 satellite)
"The Antarctic air will continue to spread over south eastern Australia between now and Sunday, causing a wintry mix of wind, rain, hail and snow in multiple states," Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino said.
"Some areas could see thunderstorms and a few places may even witness rare thundersnow (lightning and snow at the same time)."
Hobart, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Adelaide are all forecast to see drops in minimum temperatures into the single figures from tomorrow onwards due to the sudden cold snap.
The icy blast has already brought rain, snow and hail to parts of Victoria with snow hitting near Ballarat and Linbrook being hit by a strong hail storm.
A severe weather warning remains in place for the south-west and west Gippsland coasts and through the alpine peaks.
A low sitting over Tasmania will continue to spin up showers and icy cold winds for the next few days.
The intense weather system comes as the Bureau of Meteorology declared Australia now faces
three-times the normal likelihood of experiencing dangerous weather events linked to colder conditions as part of an atmospheric phenomenon not seen since 2017.
The weather agency updated its
El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) outlook yesterday to say the country is now on alert for a 70 per cent chance of La Niña forming before the end of 2020.
La Niña is a phenomenon caused by strong winds over oceans around the equator, such as the Pacific Ocean, that stir up colder waters and cause sharp shifts in on-land weather conditions.
The last time a significant stretch of La Niña happened in Australia was between December 2010 and March 2011 and that resulted in the country's wettest two-year period on record.
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•Aug 20, 2020 Mercury News
The
#orages are moving inland here in the
#Landes Castet Sarrazin Alexis Berthelot
The
#orages spin inwards with a significant drop in temperature at the rear
@ont oclimat
sputniknews.com
www.nesdis.noaa.gov
youtu.be
) and now severe thunder and lightning since early this morning - it’s definitely not the norm for the season. Of course what has been this year...??? 
