Winter 2025

July 10th, 2025

A nice little cold front by 21st Century standards but certainly not overly strong. Shooters Hill had about 5cm+ on Thursday the 10th, by days end. It started snowing at Shooters by around 11am, as I was out there. It may have reached approximately 6cm to 7cm of settling by Friday morning, the 11th. Oberon township had periodic snow showers and light settling.

The Blue Mountains had a few periods of sleet and snow showers across the day, above 1000M. It never got cold enough, for snow to settle. Remaining above 1C in Blackheath (1.3C). The Sydney weather balloon sounding showed a fairly benign system in the context of coldness through the layers. As the climate continues to warm, snow is generally retreating to the Oberon Plateau. I'm moderately confident of a better Blue Mountains snowfall this year.

June 8th/9th, 2025

A nice and cold frontal system hit the Central Tablelands on the 8th of June but to be honest, it was a bit of a 'bust' considering the potential. Apparently, it was the unusual shape of the surface low, that tended to direct the precipitation around the Central Tablelands instead of across it. We are still in the process of post event discussion.

At around 3am on the 8th, we had sleet in Blackheath that returned occasionally as the day moved on. At times there was more snow than rain but it never really became a snowfall, as the temperature remained above 2C, for most of the time.

Nice snowfalls occured on the Oberon Plateau on the 8th, especially above 1200M although the settling was generally light.

On Monday the 9th, snow fell in Blackheath around midnight to 1am and then again before sunrise. It was always just light shower activity and the temperature never quite got to zero (0.3C). Very light sleet showers (snow/rain mix) fell intermittently on Monday until about lunch time.

The Oberon Plateau had fairly persistent light snow showers on Monday the 9th, with only a light cover, maybe to 1cm to 2cm at most. And even Orange saw some light snow and sleet. And Guyra up north, also had a light settling.

The weather balloon data for Monday showed about -29C at 500hPa, -8C at 700hPa and about -1C at 850hPa. A fairly cold airmass by modern standards but lacking in moisture for the most part. I may add more to this event report as time permits and please contact me, if you are aware of any erros or more info.

May 27th, 2025

Just a light fall of sleet at Shooters Hill on Tuesday afternoon, the 27th of May. Modelling indicated that the 850hPa temperature would struggle to get below zero as the front drifted over the Oberon Plateau. From around 2.30pm to 4pm there were nice periods of fairly intense sleet and occasional flurries of snow but you'd never describe it as a snowfall. It just wasn't cold enough as a system, probably not dropping below about 1.5C at Shooters Hill. I was out there with a friend watching the transition from rain to sleet. Quite hopeful we will see better systems as we move into winter. The upper mountains had some icy rain and that was about it. With climate change, we are seeing systems around 2C warmer in the lower levels and that is enough to really reduce our chances of snow in the Blue Mountains. It's likely we are in our longest stretch without significant snow since the 1800s. We have not had a settled fall (apart from a tiny dusting on 28/7/24) since August 23/24, 2022.