Mt Read (1100m asl) is not far south and west of Cradle it sat on zero to 1 degree all day with about 18mm in a 24 hour period. Cradle was prob slightly drier but given Cradles height it would still grab a lot of moisture.

Thanks for your quick reply, Dave. I've got 2 friends currently road tripping around Tassie and they were quite excited at the prospect of seeing Cradle snow capped in the summer.

Snow probably gone already but possibility of more next day or so. Soil too warm to stay about except in very deep shaded areas. Or if they actually walked up near/passed Kitchen Hut and the base of the actual final Cradle Mt rise they might still find some.

If in the Hobart area they can go up Mt Wellington and maybe see some flakes OR even better head to Lake Dobson, 16 km on good dirt road up behind Russell Falls in Mt Field area. It often snows there even without the 540 line over Tassie. It is one of my absolute favourite spots in Tassie. It's microclimate is quite a lot colder than most areas.

CS - if they have any other queries just ask. I spent virtually every weekend for 10 years out and about in the Tassie scrub/mountains/lakes/beaches etc I know lots of good local places that most tourists don't visit because they don't know about them or don't think they have time. EG most people go to Port Arthur but miss some truly spectacular scenery just nearby including Australias highest sea cliffs. 300m straight in to the sea.

Funny you should say that, but the better half wants us to take a trip to Tassie this year, possibly sometime in July/August. We've done quite a bit of travelling around Australia in the last 5 years and Hobart is the only capital city were yet to visit, so it's on our to do list, and after having visited Cradle/Lake St Clair in July 2007 were keen to get back there. When would be the snowiest time(if there is one)to visit? It was unfortunate that our trip in 2007 coincided with some very mild(even record breaking in some parts i think) weather with very little snow.

Generally I worked on the fact that the heaviest falls were late August and up to late September. June is often very light on and July it's getting a bit more snowy. If I had to say 1 month it would be August and probably mid August on. HOWEVER in any given year it can be quite different eg MAY 2000 which was ridiculously heavy for that time.

Changes whip through very quickly and in a 2 week period there could be 3 or 4 days of potential snow especially in the higher bits.

As I said above Lake Dobson/Eagle Tarn in Mt Field (16km behind Russell/Horseshoe Falls) is a truly magical spot. Wombat Moor (on the way there) is bleak/windswept awesome with stunning views of the ranges of Mt Field/Mawson/Rodway Range.

At Lake Dobson the water is often ice and snow encrusted around the edges, or over the whole surface of the lake, heaps of temperate rainforest/Myrtle/Sassafras/Scorparia (ouch) /Pandani etc and tall Antarctic Ferns etc. Walk around Dobson to Eagle Tarn & back down the road to the car park. You are only a few hundred metres from the Mt Field ski area.

It's in the shadow of Mt Mawson so snow hangs around a long time at Lake Dobson.

Lots of Platypus there. It is a magical magical kingdom in snow!!!. We always took visitors (or just ourselves) up there if it looked like snowing.

Enjoy your short trip DaveM, say Hi to Hobart for me, we were down there April last year, and we were mostly in jeans and jumpers. Takes some photo's and post them here, so we can enjoy. Cheers

Only 14 for Saturday and 17 for Sunday - nice n cool. Hope to go up Mt Wellington where it WILL be COLD especially with a "breeze". We get there about 8.30am tomorrow, wander into town have some brekkie, wander around Salamanca, maybe zip up the Mt, check out the ole house near Fern Tree and get organised for our sons party. Sunday - hoping to get out to Salmon Ponds maaaaaybe Mt Field but not sure if the son will be up to it LOL

Then back on the big bird Sunday evening back to horrid Sydney then up through lovely Blue Mtns to home. Probably not going to want to leave Tassie really (and my "little boy" all 6 foot 8 of him).

You'e probably already here Dave but I hope you enjoy your trip anyway, it has been cold today - almost winter weather where I am (Tasman Peninsula) and gotta love thaty blasting wind, the temp as I write is upposed to be 8 degrees, feels like 2.6 degrees (which feels pretty right) and I have had the heater on all day.

We definitely missed out on having a summer this year.

I've only lived in Tassie for 4 years now, we moved from Caloundra and love the cooler weather, pristine environment and the smaller hustle and bustle, so Dave I would love to hear sometime of some of those spots you mention which people don't know about, I have seen some of the coast down the bottom of the peninsula by yacht some years agobut I'm a very keen photographer and love going places to take pikkies as often as possible.


brrrrrrrr

Travelled to Savage River via Waratah on Thursday, road through peaks a bit over 600m, had heavy sleet for 5 minutes or so until I dropped down the hill. Would have been quite snowy above 750m this week (2 changes) in western, central and southern areas. Though I have noticed the mountains closer to the west coast are rarely snow covered - possibly due to the ocean winds and thefact the rains melt the snow as soon as the cold air passes. Inland areas such as Cradle are far better at retaining snow.

As we flew in to Tassie inb Sat morning, it was very obvious that the top 200 metres or so of the central high peaks had a very pronounced snow line. I first thought it was a line of cloud but soon worked out I was wrong.

It was lovely and fresh getting off the plane at about 8.45 am (about 6 or 7 degrees) we cruised to Dome in Sandy Bay for brekkie (it's still a good spot), wandered around Salamanca markets for an hour or two then charged up the Mt.

There were snow remnants (quite a lot) from just over 1000m (Chalet). Up top it was broken cover with some drifted around plants etc up to 15 or more cm deep. Even on exposed areas it was about 3 to 5cm deep. I was surprised at how much snow there was.

We then wandered down to the Fern Tree tavern for lunch which was very enjoyable. The Tavern has had ebbs and flows of food pleasures over the last 8 or 10 years and it has been known as a very good spot but then lapsed a bit, happily it now seems to be quite nice again. Would be happy to recommend it to my local friends.

Wind chill was a bit cool at times on Saturday but overall it was a lovely sunny day with a cool breeze.

Sunday was one of those typical Tassie days that felt very hot in the sun even though the thermometer did not necessarily support the feel. The sea breeze kicked in about 2pm and it was cool in the shade in the breeze near water. Away from the seabreeze it was quite warm and felt hotter.

Bathurst is currently greener than the hobart area, it looks quite dry (very brown) but it's rapidly approaching the time of year where green will start to reappear.

As expected we did not want to leave - hope I get there a few more times and for longer stays. Might have to plan the Overland Track in Autumn for next year or something.

G'day to 43 South, you have some awesome country righ under your feet. Also the fast boat from Port Arthur to Tasman Island and Eaglehawk Neck is absolutely incredible, make sure you have a go at it. One major highlight is bumping the boat immediately under the higherst sea cliffs in Australia (300m) Do it do it do it!!!

43s if you are considering heading out for a day anytime, pm me if you think I can help with hints (My wife and I also ran Fletchers Fotographics in Hobart for 5 years so I'm keen on photography too)

Snowies - glad to see your still out there in it. Have you grown webbed toes yet from the moisture up your way?

Work puts me out in it...

Been quite dry - relatively speaking, aside from that 1 week in Jan. Still lush green though.

Was in Hobart over the weekend as well for my sister and brothers birthday, Sunday was a nice day - didn't go up the mountain cause as you say the snow wasn't visible from the city.

Is dry down there, aside from the area within 1 meter of any rain gauge owned by Sf. Really notice the change between Deloraine and Perth

A job that puts you outdoors on occasions is not too bad (mostly)

No snow vis but it was still definitely up there in the less sunny sides. It was nice to see it.

LOL re SF rain gauge - methinks it's in range of a sprinkler

Where you are now is generally much greener year round than the SE. We always noticed it heading up to Wynyard etc.

Saw the first really good mist of the season this morning in Lonnie. I love mist!

Tassie-ites, where did that come from?

won't be long and that mist will turn to frost and the fog hangs around until mid morning.

Like Launnie, Bathurst is in the bottom of a river valley and get heaps of fog and frost. Our frosts are a bit colder than even Launnie though. Not unusual for the odd minus 5 or 6 in winter here. When it gets to minus 8 it's much more noticeable.

Bathurst was the first place I saw a whole tree (large pine tree) white from top to bottom on a minus 8 morning - it was frost not snow. Blew me away.

I just looked up the difference between mist and fog and decided what we had was technically fog. But mist sounds so much more romantic.

I can't wait for the foggy, frosty, misty mornings (and evenings.) It's one of the many things I fled Queensland for.

Apparently we had enough frost to kill pumpkins last weekend, but I must have slept in. People at Deloraine were saying they got a frost too.

Ahhh the Bridgewater Jerry, do you remember that DaveM?? I believe that Hobart is the 2nd driest captial city behind Adelaide for rainfall. We noticed that last April, how dry it was down there, I guess we have become used to the subtroprical Northern NSW. My neice who is at Austins Ferry was taking photo's of across the Derwent last September, and it was still very dry, and that was even after the "wet season".

Hobart & Bathurst have almost the same average rainfall Hobart 614 Bx 632. Correct, Hobart is the second driest capital city after Adelaide it also though has the second highest hours of sunshine after Adelaide as well. Once Autumn really rolls on down Hobart way it will start to green again even without much more precip, the sun has much less strength so it needs only small amounts of moisture to green up again, heavy dew, fog (sorry mist) etc can even help it green up in Autumn.

The big diff between Hobart and Bx rain is how it's delivered, we tend to get fewr but heavier falls, Hobart has more numerous falls of lighter rain/drizzle/showers. One thing I really noticed was that Hobart rarely received large rain drops, living back here the very large drops at times could very well frighten Hobartians.

Jocelyn, Mist does sound much nicer than FOG doesn't it. The bridgewater Jerry is quite interesting, when it has a good flow down the river (like a river in the air) it creates a really cold strong wind in some places as it charges down river. I remember shivering wickedly at the Domain Tennis courts one morning, got there it was nice and blue and calm then Jerry charged down river and we froze in cold strong windy fog for about half an hour till it cleared.

Deloraine is much frostier than Hobart, you have to get out of Hobart proper (away from the water) in general to get a good frost. I think Deloraine is a stunning little town, my wife and I often stayed overnight there on weekend travels.

You lot will make me want to move back there soon. Actually we both would love to move back, it's only family that keeps us on the north island, but for us family is too big a pull (but only just!!)