Queensland, Australia temperatures fall below zero, most snowfall in decades-Brisbane Times

7/17/15, "Queensland snow: Stanthorpe gets highest falls in a decade," Brisbane Times, Kim Stephens

"Queensland may have had to wait for it, but snow has finally fallen. And it has not been just a dusting. Residents of the Granite Belt and Darling Downs have woken to a winter wonderland, with much as eight centimetres (3.15 inches) of the white blanketing the region.

It is the thickest blanket of snow to have fallen in Queensland since 1984, according to bureau senior forecaster Sam Campbell.

Karan Orr, a supervisor at the Granite Belt Wine and Tourism Centre, said people had flocked to the region to see the snow.

"I could see cars parked everywhere on the side of the road when I drove to work this morning and people were out building snowmen and throwing snowballs at each other, it was nice," she said.

"My kids were excited, I couldn't get them into the car to get on the bus."

She said the town was full of people and the visitor centre phone was ringing off the hook with people wanting to visit at the weekend. 

"I had to park way up the road there's cars and people everywhere," she said. 

"My husband woke me up at 4.30 this morning and said, 'it's snowing' and I said, 'I don't care, it's cold,'" she laughed.

"But I got up and went out and had a look and it was great."

Mrs Orr said the snow had fallen consistently throughout the night but had stopped early in the morning.

The last time Queensland saw snowfalls near this magnitude was in 2007, according to the bureau, when five centimetres (1.96 inches) was recorded in some parts of the Granite Belt.

Mr Campbell said it began to fall about midnight and continued throughout much of the night, as temperatures plummeted below zero.

Applethorpe on the Granite Belt recorded a low of minus 2.5 degrees. 

However, no more is expected, with the next few days expected to be remain cold but dry. Temperatures plummeted to wintry lows right across Queensland's south east, Mr Campbell said. 

In Brisbane the mercury fell to 6.9 degrees, while in Ipswich it dropped to 2.5.

Mr Campbell said cold air coming up from the south and westerly winds of between 20 and 30 kilometres per hour would keep the apparent temperatures low right throughout the day.

"It is going to feel like a cool day today ... the dry air and fresh winds will see the apparent temperature struggling to get above 10 degrees," he said.

Tomorrow is also expected to be another cool morning, with the bureau predicting a low of six degrees." via IceAgeNow.info

Image caption: "This isn't the Queensland we know. Photo: Higgins Storm Chasing"

IceAgeNow.info adds: "Note: The headline in The Brisbane Times called it “the highest falls in a decade,” even though the article itself said it was the biggest snowfall since 1984."

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