Several areas in Australia were blanketed with its thickest layer of snow in decades as wild weather swept through the country over the weekend.
Around 20 inches of snow had been forecast to fall on Saturday in some towns, with more than 10cm of rain expected in others the New South Wales State Emergency Service said.
Thousands of homes remained without power yesterday, with mobile phone outages widely reported across the area.
Images emerging from New South Wales across the weekend showed buildings and streets covered in deep snow, with vehicles struggling to push through the sludge which had piled up on the roads.
Cars, rooftops and highstreets were left completely white and authorities said a number of towns in eastern Australia were left flooded and without power due to the extreme weather – which has not been seen since the mid 1980s.
The emergency service said it had responded to over 1,455 incidents and more than 200 vehicles had been stranded by snow, adding that storms had damaged buildings and it had issued several major flood warnings.
Parts of the state’s New England North West region received their deepest snow in 20 years, state broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Police in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, said a car had become stuck in floodwater on Saturday evening and a female passenger, 27, was swept away.
She was rescued without injuries, police later said on Monday, adding that the search for other possible victims was underway.
In another incident, State Emergency Service (SES) crews saved a 40-year-old man in the Hunter Valley who was stuck in a tree due to flood water.
The man was swept out of the tree but rescuers followed him into the water and managed to pull him to shore and he was taken to hospital.
Meanwhile, snow also settled in areas of the neighbouring state of Queensland for the first time in ten years, Miriam Bradbury, a meteorologist at Australia’s weather bureau, said.
Ian Robinson, superintendent of the SES, said that some areas had been ‘absolutely smashed’ by wind and rain, as per the ABC.
‘A number of roofs are off in that area as well,’ Robinson added.
‘It’s so risky, unless you’ve actually got snow chains, even a dusting of snow can hide the ice underneath. Before you know it, you’re sliding and you’re not in control of your vehicle.’
The rain had started to ease on Sunday, but parts of New England in New South Wales were urged to evacuate before 4pm, ahead of major flooding that was expected on Monday.
The flooding is expected to occur in low-lying parts of Gunnedah, New England, as well as Raymond Terrace in the Hunter Region, the New South Wales State Emergency Service said.
The SES also warned the Wee Waa and Narrabri areas that further river rises were possible over the coming days as flood waters moved downstream.
The New South Wales SES said it had positioned assets into Narrabri in preparation.
SES assistant commissioner, Nicole Hogan warned black ice was a significant risk and was causing dangerous road conditions throughout the northern tablelands.
‘We have road crash crews prepositioned and ready to respond to any rescues, but we ask the community to please avoid unnecessary travel,’ she said.
‘If you do need to be on the roads in areas with snow, drive with caution, always use your brakes gently and drive slowly.’
Damaging wind gusts exceeding 90km/h and large and powerful surf are also forecast.
Bradbury said climate change has made Australia’s weather more volatile in recent years, but that this sort of event had only occurred several times in history.
‘What makes this event unusual is how much snow we had but also how widespread, covering quite a large part of the northern tablelands,’ she said.
Although the harsh weather brought with it chaos and disruption, many Australians were seen in footage and images having snowball fights and building snowmen.
‘It’s a very surreal experience. I’ve never seen snow before in my entire life,’ Brendan Gough, who travelled hundreds of miles from Queensland to experience the phenomenon, told Reuters.
Since the onset of the severe weather, the SES revealed it had received more than 3,600 calls and responded to 2,092 incidents, including 25 flood rescues.
The service had responded to 11 flood rescues in the last 24 hours, the majority for vehicles being driven into flood waters.
On Monday, the SES deputy commissioner, Debbie Platz, said the area around Gunnedah was of ‘major concern’ because of the high river level.
‘We do expect that the river will peak later this evening and then it will stay at a high level, so major flood level, until probably Wednesday,’ she told the ABC.
It comes after a series of relentless cold fronts brought icy temperatures, rain, damaging wind gusts and snow to Australia’s southeast last month.
The first of four cold fronts arrived in southwest Western Australia and delivered rain and wind gusts of over 120km/hour to the region.
Another cold front powered by a low-pressure system impacted South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and NSW.
The Bureau of Meteorology said residents in coastal and elevated parts of South Australia, Victoria and southern NSW needed to remain vigilant amid powerful wind gusts at the time.
