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Orange is the new white, and the Blue Mountains are not so blue today

Anthony Sharwood

As the cold snap in New South Wales refuses to loosen its icy grip, large parts of the Central Tablelands and Blue Mountains have experienced snowfalls.

Nowhere near as much snow has fallen in these central parts of NSW as further south, where Snowy Mountains ski resorts received as much as 60 centimeters of snow from late Tuesday into Thursday morning.

However areas in the Central Tablelands and Blue Mountains as low as 800 metes above sea level have seen at least a dusting of snow, with the heaviest falls in and around the city of Orange, population 40,000 plus three slightly confused alpacas.

Image: Heifer Station Wines sits at about 850m above sea level, and we're pretty sure these aren't heifers! Source: @heiferstationwines on Instagram.

Millthorpe, just up the highway at 860m above sea level, also received a reasonably healthy coating of the white stuff.

Image: Another bustling day on the main street of Millthotpe, pop. 1250. Source: @mr.bradley.bradley on Instagram.

There was even a sprinkling of snow on Mt Panorama (elevation about 870m), where the Bathurst 1000 toboganning challenge* is about the only race with any chance of taking place today.

(*not actually a real race, but it should be!)

And as for Orange racecourse, perhaps they could have a cross-country ski race or two today. But horse races? Forget it.

The Blue Mountains towns of Blackheath (1066m), Katoomba (1017m) and even Leura (985m) and the slightly lower Wentworth Falls (870m) also saw their first solid snowfalls of winter 2021.

Wentworth Falls snow is quite rare. The extra 150 metres or so below Katoomba makes a huge difference in such a marginal area for snow.

But local TAFE teacher Rob Mann snapped this pic on Thursday morning, and said the depth got up to about three centimeters in town.

He also said that TAFE is enrolling now for semester 2, and that you should check your local campus for information session times, which isn't really weather info, but it was nice of him to share the image, so we thought we'd give a good cause a plug.

 

Image: Wentworth snow falls! Source: Rob Mann.

The best chance of snow on the tablelands of NSW as Thursday wears on is now further north in places like Guyra and Glenn Innes on the Northern Tablelands.

Light falls have already been recorded, and with, luck we'll share some pics from that area soon.

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