Cold air from the south in an upper level trough and widespread cloud cover has caused temperatures across the southeast to plummet. On Saturday, day time temperatures across Victoria, South Australia and parts of NSW were around 5 and 17 degrees below average. In South Australia Moomba Airport just reached 19 degrees, 17 below average. This is 3 degrees colder than their December minimum average. Elsewhere the places were in the Victorian Alps where temperatures were as cold as those seen in October. Mount Buller only managed to reach 2 degrees, 13 below average. Falls Creek warmed to just 3 degrees, the coldest it has been in December for 19 years. Wind gusts on the Alps around 50 to 70 km/h made temperatures feel more like minus 7! Temperatures are forecast to stay down over the next 48 hours in the southeast, bringing the potential for snow flurries on higher ground. Overnight on Sunday, temperatures are predicted to step below zero with Mount Hothom set to drop to minus 2. With temperatures this low, precipitation is likely to fall as snow to as low as 1200m. Temperatures are set to return to around average by mid-week in time for Christmas.