Does it snow in Australia?

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christinafleur.

Ok, so we know it does snow in Australia, but in reality, snow is rare in Australia, particularly when compared to countries in the Northern Hemisphere.

Although snow occasionally falls in the SW of Western Australia, the SE of South Australia, the highlands of Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and even SE Queensland, regular falls outside the Snowy Mountains area of SE New South Wales, NE Victoria and central Tasmania are extremely rare.

Excluding the towns directly in the snowy mountains (towns like Cabramurra, Adaminaby and Jindabyne), Australia's towns that are most likely to receive snow include Oberon, Orange, Blackheath, Katoomba, Guyra, Nimmitabel and possibly Cooma in NSW. In Victoria, there's really only Ballarat, Bright and Beechworth.

Of Australia's major cities, Canberra is the most likely to receive snow, followed by Hobart.

I have been to the snowy mountains and stayed at Selwyn, a snow resort, last year. It snowed so much that no artificial snow was needed, it was a very good year.

sleepycatz1972

some places, yes, mostly in mountainous areas or the southernmost parts of the country (like victoria).

EDIT: i'm sorry, but did i say it snows specifically in melbourne? no, i mentioned that victoria has a better chance of having snow than other territories, which is true as they have more mountains & hills. (it's where we go to ski most winters.) last i checked, it doesn't exactly snow in ularu...so perhaps you should learn to read more carefully before slinging insults unnecessarily.
http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1process_details.cfm?activity=18

Wise Door

Not much overall, although you will find parts of the country with it in the winter, usually in the mountain regions. Australia has higher sustained temperatures that don't really correlate to snow being much of an issue here.

If you're wanting to go play some winter games in the snow here, try Jindabyne or Smiggin Holes in NSW, Mt Buller or Falls Creek in Victoria.

Some places will experience intermittent snowfall in the winter, although it doesn't stay around much, like Tasmania or the Dandenong Ranges outside Melbourne (see? it DOES snow in Melbourne once in a while. Maybe Charlotte needs to learn some manners and actually answer questions in a helpful way rather than insult people and give bad advice.)

lol, and I'm not surprised Oz has more land covered in snow than switzerland...that whole country is only the three times the size of Sydney.

ABCDiamond Britzinoz.com

Yes.

The most common snowfalls will be in areas of the Snowy Mountains, such as: Adaminaby, Cabramurra and Jindabyne.

Then some areas in NSW such as Blackheath, Cooma,Guyra, Katoomba, Nimmitabel, Oberon and Orange will also get some snow.
In Victoria, maybe Ballarat, Bright and Beechworth.

Canberra in the ACT does get some snow, and so does Hobart in Tasmania.

Asgre

Yes it does snow in Australia. Mainly in what are known as the 'Snowy Mountains' which cover an area between southern New South Wales and Northern Victoria. Ski resort include Mt Selwyn, Perisher Blue, and Thredbo in New South Wales. Mt Buller, Mt Buffalo, Mt Hotham and Falls Creek in Victoria. I think that there are also some small ski resorts also on Tasmania.

Some snow does fall in the higher regions of New South Wales and Victoria that are not snowy regions, such as the Blue Mountains, Armidale, Canberra(the capital) and the Dandenong ranges in Victoria.

Our ski season has been limited and rather short the past few years. The last best being in 2000 which was awesome cause every one was at the Olympics and not at the snow. I skied every week that year for twelve weeks. Hopefully that will happen again but that seems a pipe dream right now.

Tim N

A statistic I heard is that during an average winter in Australia, there will be more area covered by snow than there is in Switzerland.

Having said that, it is extremely rare for it to snow in any of the major cities, and if you want to see snow in Australia, you have to actively move to get to it.

zoomzoom

i'm in sydney and it doesn't generally snow expected in the mountains. but we do occasionally get the odd sprinkle of snow in odd spots, but its seen as a freakish event, normally gets amention in the news. Being in the southern hemisphere, its not a big surprise that it doesn't really snow