Friday night snow is forecast for high parts of Orange after the Bureau of Meteorology upgraded its cold snap forecast for the Central West on Thursday morning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
A top of 9 degrees is still predicted for Orange on Friday, down from a very spring-like top of 21 degrees Thursday.
However, the Bureau's Meteye forecasting tool, which highlights patches of the state likely to experience some snow, has been upgraded to include parts of Gaanha bula-Mount Canobolas. The mountain's peak sits at about 1395 metres.
Snow fall is expected to begin around 7pm on Friday, September 8 and then intensify come 10pm.
The top of Gaanha bula-Mount Canobolas is still accessible to the public.
Large parts of the Oberon and Jenolan Caves region are still likely to be heavily impacted by snow.
Earlier
From a balmy 21 degrees on Thursday to minus 4 degrees on Saturday morning ... welcome to spring in Orange.
Oh, and there's also a chance of snow in the region on Friday.
The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting Orange to hit a maximum temperature of 21 degrees on Thursday - we haven't hit 21 degrees since April 5 this year.
That's when our run of warm weather will reach its crescendo though, with Friday's maximum plummeting a monumental 12 degrees.
Friday's top mark is predicted to hit just 9 degrees. There's a medium chance of showers too, with parts of the region above 1100 metres a chance of some snow.
At this point, the Bureau's meteye forecast has that snow falling in the Oberon and Jenolan Caves region. There's no snow predicted for Gaanha bula-Mount Canobolas on the radar.
Saturday morning's junior sport community should then break-out the beanies again, with a low of minus 4 degrees predicted for the morning of September 8. Forecast winds from the south should ensure that feels-like temperature is much lower, too.
The lowest recorded temperature for Orange to start spring is minus 5.4 degrees, way back in 1979.
The cold snap set to hit the region bucks the warm trend we've experienced throughout winter in Orange.
The 2023 winter period was Orange's warmest on record, and September has started in that fashion too.
So far, the average top temperature has been 17.3 degrees. The long term average is 14.2 degrees.
The yo-yo style of weather is not a new thing for spring, with Weatherzone saying September is always a time of contrasting temperatures across Australia as warm continental air masses battle much colder air arriving from the Southern Ocean.
Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.
Sign-up to our latest newsletter
