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Heavy snow blankets Alps

Ben Domensino, Friday September 30, 2016 - 12:58 AEST

A rare late-season snow dump is turning Australia's alps white, when they should be getting green at this time of year.

About 20 to 30cm of fresh snow was sitting on the ground as the sun rose over Australia's ski slopes this morning. Falls Creek and Perisher were two of the standouts, with the landscape looking more like early August than late September. Another 20cm is expected to fall across the region today.

In a more typical late-September week, today's showers would be falling as rain. Today though, cold air being drawn over Australia's southeast by a complex low is causing snow, and lots of it.

In recent history, this much snow this late in the season is unprecedented. A weekly snow depth increase of 50cm has never been recorded this late in September.

Snow will continue on Saturday but should become confined to the Alpine peaks. It will also be windy in the mountains this weekend, so be careful if you are planning on heading up there.

- Weatherzone

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