Four seasons in one day for Aussies

[AndreA]

Four seasons in one day for Aussies

December 26, 2006 - 6:54AM

Santa has delivered a gift of wild and unpredictable weather to Australians this Christmas, including the coldest December 25 in Melbourne on record.
Residents in two bushfire-affected states awoke to a white Christmas, while Queenslanders sweltered in hot and humid conditions.
Storms caused havoc in suburban Melbourne, while residents in an inland NSW city were celebrating record drought-breaking rain.
Snow fell in Victoria and Tasmania, which are still battling fires that have blackened thousands of hectares this month, and in alpine areas of NSW.
In Tasmania, the weather bureau reported five centimetres of snow had fallen at the summit of Mount Wellington in Hobart.
Snow was settling 800 to 900 metres above sea level on the mountain, Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) duty senior forecaster Shane Wells said.
Cradle Mountain and Mount Read also were likely to have received a dusting, he said.
Snow capped Victoria's Mt Buller and Lake Mountain, where the temperature plunged to minus two degrees celsius on Monday morning.
In the capital, Melburnians endured their coldest Christmas day on record with the mercury peaking at just 14.5 degrees Celsius.
The previous lowest temperature recorded on December 25 since records began 150 years ago was 15.9 degrees, in 1935.
In NSW, four centimetres of snow fell at Thredbo, in the Snowy Mountains, late on Monday morning.
Up to 20cm of snow was expected by early on Tuesday at altitudes above 1,200 metres around Thredbo, Perisher and surrounding areas, the BOM said.
Strong winds and heavy rain have caused Christmas Day havoc in suburban Melbourne, dislodging roof tiles and causing flooding.
The State Emergency Service (SES) said volunteers responded to 50 calls for help after a storm passed through the Frankston and Seaford areas, south-west of Melbourne, around 9.30am (AEDT) on Monday.
At least one home lost its roof in the storm, and dozens other suffered water damage.
There were no reports of any injuries.
The BoM forecast local hail along with thunder and fresh to strong and gusty winds for the Melbourne metropolitan region on Monday.
Gusts nearing gale force were recorded at the bureau's Frankston automatic weather station throughout the morning.
Meanwhile, Queenslanders in many regions sweltered through high temperatures and humid conditions.
Brisbane recorded a muggy 32 degrees, with temperatures in far north Queensland reaching as high as 37 in areas like Weipa on the Cape York Peninsula and Normanton on the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Cunnamulla received some welcome rain over Christmas, recording 25mm in the past 24 hours, with Quilpie in the state's west also receiving a light drizzle.
Residents in the drought-stricken NSW city of Goulburn celebrated their Christmas gift of rain, with a record 27.8mm falling on the southern highlands area on Monday morning.
It was a much needed present for the city's residents, as Goulburn's main Pejar dam was only 1.5 per cent full on December 17.
The town's two smaller dams, which together are two-thirds the size of Pejar, were less than half-full.
Goulburn's total usable water supply stood at 9.5 per cent of capacity at the end of last week.
More rain fell on Monday than in the past three months combined.
Top-level water restrictions have been in place in Goulburn since October 2004.
© 2006 AAP
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