2000 Snow Reports and Chases
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May 28, 2000 Part One:

Adam and I left for the Oberon area early, around 6am. Light snow was falling in Blackheath and the temp had fallen to around -2C. It was a little icy driving down Mount Victoria pass but this didn't compare to the conditions that awaited us south of Oberon. Driving in via Hampton, conditions started to deteriorate. Not much snow around here but plenty of ice on the road. I'd estimate it was around -4C or so in this area and with a fresh wind it felt even colder. Turning off at the Mount Bindo corner, we headed towards Oberon, reasoning that if the snow was decent there, it gave us little chance of making it any further toward Shooters Hill etc. To our surprise, there wasn't much snow in Oberon either, I'd say two to three centimetres of settled snow in the fields and less in the town. Making our way to Shooters Hill gave us the first glimpse of falling snow, not much, but enough to whet our appetite for more. The snow was icy and soft and wasn't falling in any great quantities so after a while we made our way towards Mount Trickett. Snow and lots of ice was on the ground here, falling snow accompanied a decent wind that made if difficult to stay outside for any length of time. Eventually, and not before a fair bit of ice and snow throwing, we drove carefully towards Jenolan Caves and headed on home. A nice little chase indeed but I had heard via the aussie-wx email list that tonight was possibly going to be better. The thing is, we didn't realise how much better at the time.

May 28, 2000. Part Two: 2:30pm

Sunday afternoon saw me feeling quite tired and lounge ridden. Staring out the window, my mind pondered the possibilities of further and heavier snowfalls reaching us later. The temp hadn't made it to 2C all day, and the cloud seemed to be thickening to the west. It seemed like a good time to get some rest before another potential chase tomorrow, as I imagined I would be up quite late tonight following this event as it unfolded. My heavy lids blinked a few times drifting into dreamland or snowland and then..."Is that snow? Yes! Bewdy!" Large flakes started to fall intermittantly, there was barely any wind. It wasn't long before snow was falling at a steady rate which became quite heavy at times throughout the afternoon. The temp quickly dropped to below zero and by 4pm we had a nice cover of snow throughout the town. By 6pm I was beginning to wonder just how much snow we would have by morning when things suddenly slowed down. At this stage there was around 6 to 8cm of snow on the ground in Blackheath and light snow continued to fall throughout the evening, leaving us with a total cover of around 10cm. It was beautiful, crunchy, dry snow that covered everything. For the next 60 hours or so in Blackheath, the temperature struggled to get above zero, peaking out at 5C finally, by Wednesday afternoon. It was a fantastic event, one that I was very glad to be a part of.

June 5th, 2000. 7am.

Another nice fall of snow that looked like it was going to continue for some time. It didn't last long but the large flakes settled for 20 minutes or so and made for a lovely snow scene.

June 29th and 30th, 2000.

Thursday morning greeted us with overcast skies and not long after that, very intense sago snow or wintery hail. It covered everything, bouncing off the bitumen and car roofs as it fell. Snow began to mix in and before long, moderate to heavy snow was falling leaving us with around 3cm of snow on the ground. By 10am the snow had stopped falling and we didn't have to go to work for the day :)

Next morning we were awoken at 4am by men's voices in the street. Shivering, I got up and peeked out the window to see around 3 to 5cm of snow on the ground. Unlike yesterday where the temp didn't get above 2C, conditions cleared somewhat by mid-morning, so we had to go to work, after some snow photos of course. The snow melted fairly quickly as we had a max of 7C that day.

July 26th and 27th, 2000.

Wednesday didn't see the temp rise above 5.5C all day. Light snow flurries began in the late afternoon and became heavier by 9pm. By midnight, there was around 2.5cm of snow on the ground. Thursday evening presented us with a most interesting snowfall. The max temp for that day was only 3C, so with the cloud rolling in by early evening, there was a decent chance of snow again. By 7:30pm, snow was falling. It was a beautiful, crystalline type snow, falling from stratus cloud like frozen drizzle from the south/south east. Snow continued falling until around 10pm with light flurries persisting until morning. Next morning greeted us with around 4 to 5cm of crunchy, crystalline snow. Some of the most beautiful snow I have ever seen.

August 16th, 2000.

Light snow fell intermittantly this morning from around 6:30am to 9:30am. It was wet, slushy snow that covered the ground until lunchtime. The max temp moved fairly quickly to 6.5C by mid afternoon.