Nice stuff MB, that's a ripper.

Yeah Dave M, a bit too cold, I reckon. Still getting used to the raw profile for the 60D in Linux.

Chilly here, only around 5C here with drizzle.

Not going to be a warm day there today at all Blizz. It's even spilling cloud over us and making it cool here - be much worse there. Keep the photos coming

It's been interesting going through Trove and seeing just how common and to what elevation snow used to fall. A lot has been written in this forum of the great fall of 5 July 1900.

It has been interesting to note though that on 9 August 1899, there was a 5 inch (12cm) fall in Gundagai (elevation 250m) and snow settled in Albury and Junee. One might assume Wagga received snow as well.

How amazing to get two such extraordinary low level falls in successive years, as we now in these forums anxiously search for just a few flakes at elevations where once it was commonplace.

From 1895 to 1910 was an extraordinarily snowy period, though there are sketchy reports indicating very snowy times in the earlier 1800s too, especially before the widespread introduction of country newspapers around the 1850s. Here is an extract from my database covering those 15 years, excluding some of the less significant falls and concentrating mostly on the Central West of NSW. It gives more detail on the event floody mentions.

I don't claim it to be in any way complete, and some of the reports are tantalisingly short of detail. I haven't included the newspaper reference details for all quotes, as they were in a separate column of the spreadsheet which I found difficult to amalgamate in this text listing. Millthorpe appears with remarkable regularity, not because I gave it favoured treatment because it's my home town, but because the Western Advocate had a keen reporter here. Some day, when I'm happier with the completeness of the database, I'll be making it available.

Dates are in reverse order, i.e. yyyy mm dd


1896 06 22 Widespread heavy snow from VIC border north to at least Armidale ("country white with snow"), east to Robertson and west to Cootamundra, Parkes and Cudal. Reports relevant to the Central West are: Bathurst, snow all day, 20cm cover by evening, Country white in all directions - Blayney, 13cm, heaviest in 30 years - Canowindra, 5cm of snow, first for many years - Carcoar, heaviest snow in years - Cudal, 12cm of snow, unprecedented for the area - Dubbo, light snow showers, first ever for the district - Forbes, light snow - Gulgong, 15cm, heaviest ever in the district - Hill End, 15cm, heaviest snow in 30 years - Millthorpe, snow 15cm deep everywhere - Molong, heaviest snow ever witnessed, 15cm and first since 1869 - Parkes, snowstorm 2-3 hours long. It was "asserted that snow actually fell in Sydney during the day." At Lawson, drifts 3 to 4 feet deep covered the railway lines "for nearly two miles...and the engines found it impossible to make progress even with the sweepers in front."

1898 07 21 Snow fell for an hour in Bathurst, 2 in Blayney and "several" in Millthorpe. 5cm on ground in Carcoar.

1898 08 03 Snow reports from wide area including Millthorpe.

1899 08 08 Widespread snow fell where it had not been seen for 20 years or more with falls mainly on the ST and Southwest Slopes but extending in the CT. Snow reported from Wagga (several inches deep), Culcairn, Coolamon, Temora, Tumut (10cm deep) , Gundagai (4-6 inches deep, a foot in the hills), and Adelong (9 inches), Junee (snow fell heavily at 3am and continued until 11am). Heavy snow reported at Millthorpe, Trunkey Creekand Oberon.

1900 07 05 Heaviest recorded snow event in the area, with heavy snow also west onto the Plains and north to at least Glen Innes. Russells report (AWN): "Railway traffic became paralysed, passengers being shut up in carriages, unable to reach hotels; in places snow 8 feet deep on rails. Telegraph wires down everywhere... Bathurst had a unique experience, all business being suspended;; roofs, verandahs, and lightly constructed buildings collapsed under the weight of the snow. The phenomenal fall of snow at Bathurst [27inches] was surpassed on the mountains, and at places between Locksley and Rydal, it fell to a depth of 4 feet. The passenger train which left Bathurst was unable to proceed beyond Locksley." Blayney experienced similar conditions to Bathurst with snow falling from 5am to 5pm for an average snow depth of 27 inches. Subsequent snow topped this up to 3 feet with drifts to 6 feet. Other notable snow depths in the area: O'Connell 24 inches, Millthorpe 20 inches, 3 to 4 feet in drifts, Parkes 4 inches, Molong 15 inches, Cowra 5 inches, Mudgee 20 inches, Wellington 4 inches, Forbes 9 inches, Carcoar 3 feet, Wallerawang 2 feet, Canowindra 1 foot, Hill End 16 inches, Orange 18 inches. Doug Shepherd's reconstruction (see AWN) shows this to have been an extreme small upper cold pool that developed on a surface low. The system also brought flood rains from Goulburn and Sydney southwards at the same time as heavy snow was falling.

1901 06 18 Orange reported "several inches".

1901 07 28-29 Probably the most extensive snow event in southern Australia covering somewhere between 50 and 70% of the NSW and much of Victoria, parts of SE SA and southern QLD at some point. Many locations reported snow for the first time on record, and have not seen it again since. In the Central West, snow depths are largely unknown, though snow was reported at Bathurst, Carcoar, Millthorpe, Molong, Orange, Parkes and Wellington. Lithgow reported 15cm.

1901 08 28 Snow general in the Central West with 7-8cm at Lithgow and Orange, 5cm Rockley and 20cm Burraga

1901 09 30 Snow in the southeast of the state extended in the Central West with 3 inches at Millthorpe.

1905 08 30 Very widespread mainly light snow extending the full length of the Great Divide in NSW. SMH reports that "at 3pm snow was falling at … Carcoar [and] Orange…

1906 07 23 Widespread variable falls across the Southern and CT, extending east to the Southern Highlands and west to Junee. SMH reported "Intensely cold conditions". Snow was reported from Blayney.

1906 11 05 Late season falls reported from Bathurst and other locations south to Bombala and Tumbarumba and north to Capertee.

1908 06 23-24 Snow on the Southern and CT on 23rd moving to the NT on 24th. At 3pm 23rd snow was falling at Orange, Blayney, Dubbo and Carcoar, and snow depths reported included 30cm at Sunny Corner, 12 at Trunkey Creek. Snow also reported at Narrandera

1908 08 03 Oberon 22cm in 4 hours.

1908 09 21 Snow fell at Carcoar and Blayney among many locations from Nimmitabel to Glen Innes

1909 07 30 From Abercrombie Caves "There was a heavy fall of snow all around the district in July." Snow reported from Orange and as far afield as Mudgee, Coonabarabran and Moss Vale.

1909 08 02 Snow at Blayney ("most persistent fall for a few years"), Carcoar also out to Gundagai, Harden and Junee.

1910 06 02-03 Widespread heavy snow in the first week of June. Reported from Blayney and Millthorpe, but also from Oberon and Rydal (both 5cm), Bowral, Bundanoon ("all the country is clothed in white") while Bombala had its "heaviest fall of snow ever seen here".

1910 07 18-19 Extraordinarily heavy snowfall on the Blue Mountains and Oberon Plateau, and north to New England. SMH: "A Western train pulled into Central station this afternoon over three hours behind scheduled time and it presented a remarkable sight. In front of the engine snow was piled 3 ft deep, and all along the roofs of the carriages there was a white covering." Grey River Argus: "Owing to the snow, the Blue Mountain railway service is disorganised. It is reported that several engines are derailed but owing to the broken telegraph lines details are not available. It is learned, however, that over four feet of snow fell on the track in many places." BoM SW: "Snow was 61cm deep at Blackheath, 55cm deep at Mount Victoria and 46cm deep at Oberon." Medlow Bath received its heaviest fall on record, and down below in the Megalong Valley, a young Bernard O'Reilly listened as gum tree branches snapped under the weight of snow in completely calm conditions with sounds like pistol fire. The event, and a magnificent account of his uncle's harrowing experience on the train trip from Sydney, occupy a complete chapter in his book Cullenbenbong. Blackheath was said to have been cut off by road for two weeks.

Amazing stuff Laurier.
Going through Trove its interesting to see the old weather forecasts and reports. My local paper does not seem to be in the Trove archive so I look forward to that and developing an archive of snow in Bowral and surrounds.

Its interesting that the Federation drought accompanied this - for coastal regions of New South Wales the entire decade between 1901 and 1910 was consistently dry and Sydney did not exceed its long-term mean rainfall once.

That is brilliant Laurier. Hope its okay that I have just tweeted those Blackheath dates for 1910 and snow depth and mentioned that you are working on a database, acknowledging your website as the reference.

Gorgeous day in the 'heath. Some visits to the local hardware stores for me then roofing work (gradually replacing a large volume of roofing nails with screws) and gardening. Might even post a Twitter pic from the roof, nice view up there.

That's fine, Blizz. Floody, there's a complete listing of Trove papers and the years available [here] which is updated as new papers or new scans come online.

I wish/hope next Friday's possible (likely) blizzard on the CT's can live up to one of the snows like in 1896.

http://s940.photobucket.com/albums/ad244/ellalong/?action=view¤t=MURRURUNDISNOW.jpg

Click Above to see when it snowed on murrurundi Gap,pic looking towards the west from murrurundi.

I lived in Quirindi for 8 years - snowed on that gap a number of times in the 70's. Good photo.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2007/06/22/1959122.htm

The link above show's a pic of snow at Muswellbrook in the Hunter in 1965, at the same time it snowed on the Watagans mountains, here south of cessnock and on Mt Sugerloaf,just inland from newcastle.

Looking at the broad idea of late next week, I think I may
have found the antidote to PD's snow deprivation. It might just serve as a pleasant pill for Aslaws, Laurier and numerous others.

The pill is called EC +144. Or maybe its actually an injection...of cold air...

Nurse...

Blizz,It doesn't look too bad on Friday/Saturday next week.

Yes, that would do the trick, I was just going back through the models to see why GFS does not agree and as usual they agree at 72h with the cold change south of Perth. But then already at 96h EC has a second cold change on the back of the previous 24h but GFS does not. That then escalates from there onwards with no cold change hitting Adelaide at 120h by GFS but hitting Adelaide by EC. Will be checking tonight if GFS picks up that missing cold change at 06z.

Mainlining that would certainly be the cure to many a snow deprived ill round these parts

[Here's] an interesting story from last Saturday's SMH Traveller about the heavy snows on the Monaro in 1949. This was a season of heavy snow away from the Alps, with the fall on the Monaro on 22 June possibly the heaviest recorded in the area. That was followed up by another heavy fall from 18 to 19 July. The captions in the article say August, but I think that is wrong.

The notes I have certainly show that 1949 was one of the bleakest on the Monaro in history - snow lay continuously on the ground at Nimmitabel from late June to at least early August with the town recording 60cm in the 22 June fall alone. After that fall, snow ploughs were needed to clear roads between Cooma and Bombala of nearly a metre of snow. From 18-19 July there were further heavy falls. Cooma had 45cm in the main street with drifts to 2m and these persisted for many weeks.

It's hard to even imagine falls like those in this era Laurier.
Some of those figures are truly amazing.
I'd like to see something like that again, just once in my remaining years.

Homer

Yes those were the days, when you also realize that during the period 1900-1950, snowpacks in the Snowies regularly reached 3m almost every 3 years it really brings home the changes since 1950 onwards. The one way-ness of the trend of decreasing snow is really mind blowing and horrible to think about.

Aside from just snow, its so sad that the Cooma train was discontinued. Many times I use to catch that train from Sydney in the late 70's. You get on at around 7pm and then it would arrive in Cooma at 7am the next day. It was a very slow train and was called a "mail train". stopped everywhere, and often travelled quite slow. All passengers were given a hot oil tin bottle that looked like a car muffler under your feet in the late evening to help keep you warm. It was always so exiting to travel across the frozen tablelands plains south of Goulburn.

This train should have been extended to Jindabyne and then on to the present ski tube. But instead we have nothing. Would have been so wonderful to catch the train to the snow from Canberra or Sydney.

Another think I still miss is the restaurant on Blue Cow, back in the late 80's it operated until midnight as a top quality restaurant. Had one memorable dinner up there over about 3 hours from 8pm to 11pm watching a blizzard outside. It had full glass walls and strong spot lights outside so you were sitting in a warm glass capsule watching a blizzard pelt you. Nothing quite as nice as that anywhere. One night I watched 2m long icicles forming over the spotlights as the pelting snow melted on contact with the hot lights and refroze in the wind. The icicles actually grew 2m over the 3 hours.

Why are these things gone?. why is there no train, why is there no night restaurant on Blue Cow now. So sad how life just seems to be going backwards.

The almighty dollar Peter. Blue Cow probably ran at a loss doing such a thing.
We live in the ultimate commercial world.
In saying that, I wish I'd experienced an evening like that.

Homer

I am sure the demand would be there had they advertised a little better. Plenty of times I would have made a trip to the Snowies for a Saturday night at that restaurant from here. So the Snowies are loosing business by not having that attraction.

The loss of many rail lines in Australia like the Cooma line, is a planning issue handled badly. Its one of those things that need a long term vision which non of our politicians have. That is the problem with our society that everything is done for the quick buck with no consideration for anything else, if it does not payback within a couple of years its not done. This was not the case before our system of government started to go downhill.