What a difference a week makes, while the start to April has had the east cheering the arrival of warm weather, the past week has sent everyone running back indoors to their heaters.
 
 
 
The total temperature drop from the past week exceeded 20˚C in most areas including;
 
 
 
-      Canberra     26˚C to 0˚C
 
-      Adelaide      35˚C to 8˚C
 
-      Hobart         29˚C to 6˚C
 
-      Melbourne   29˚C to 8˚C
 
-      Brisbane      31˚C to 15˚C
 
-      Sydney        28˚C to 10˚C
 
 
 
The cold-snap has provided the coldest weather this early in autumn for many years. For Sydney and Canberra it has been the coldest in 15 years while in Brisbane the coldest in four.
 
 
 
The dramatic plunge from warm weather to frost and snow was due to the passage of a very cold airmass from deep in the Southern Ocean to south-eastern Australia.
 
 
 
The good news is almost as quickly as the cold-snap hit, warmer weather is now returning and most of Australia will enjoy a mostly sunny weekend with maximum temperatures in the mid to high 20s.
 
 
 
Thankfully a spell of cold weather in mid-autumn is not an indication of an impending long, cold winter. Then again the warm weather that follows is not an indication of a warm winter either.

Tom Saunders
 Senior Meteorologist
 The Weather Channel