A powerful cold front sweeping across southeastern Australia could lead to thousands of homes being battered by heavy winds and showers amid warnings that more wild weather lays ahead.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued severe weather warnings for damaging winds for parts of Victoria and Tasmania on Thursday, as the cold front combines with a high pressure system.
The weather system will ease in the west as it moves into central Victoria on Thursday, with central Tasmania likewise forecast to record wind gusts up to 100km/h over the Central Plateau.
The weather front will also bring rain to large swathes of southern Australia over the weekend, with Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide forecast to receive light showers as temperatures plummet.
The mercury plunged below -10C in parts of northern NSW on Thursday, according to Weatherzone.
Glen Innes in the Northern Tablelands recorded a minimum of -10.8C overnight.
It was the lowest temperature so far this year and the country’s lowest July temperature outside of the Alps since 2019.
Further south, Bombala in the NSW Bega Valley and Goulburn, south of Sydney, both recorded just -8.1C.
The two towns were among the handful that recorded their coldest July mornings since 2018.
Canberra recorded -5.9C on Thursday, with the mercury again forecast to dip as low as -3C over the weekend.
Hobart and Melbourne are both forecast to reach 15C over Saturday and Sunday.
In Sydney, a maximum temperature of 17C is forecast over the weekend.
Brisbane will reach 21C, with showers forecast, while Perth will reach 19C as rains there clear.
Darwin will miss out on the rain, with maximum temperatures of 33C over the weekend.
The Alpine regions will possibly get a dusting over the weekend, with snow forecast above 1200m.
The forecast comes after Sydney recorded one its driest starts to winter.
The dry spell, a boon for snow fields, meant Sydney’s Observatory Hill recorded just 22mm of rain in six weeks.