While most of us further north are starting to feel the warmth of spring creeping in, Tasmania is getting hammered with the winds of winter. 

As you can see in the image below, parts of the west and south coasts are being hit with northwesterly winds of 30-40 knots (55-75km/h), with some places seeing wind gusts in excess of 80km/h. Maatsuyker Island Lighthouse on the south coast saw a wind gust earlier this afternoon of 113km/h, with sustained winds of 100km/h. Before dawn this morning Hartz Mountain saw wind gusts of 91km/h and sustained winds of 72km/h. In addition to winds, showers are continuing to fall over the west coast.  

Image: Himawari-8 visible true colour satellite image with radar, observed wind gusts (km/h) and observed sustained winds (knots) on Sunday 11th September at 2:35pm AEST 

So what’s driving this cold weather? No, not the Night King, though we wouldn’t blame you for thinking it.  

As seen in the images below, a vigourous cold front and secondary trough are currently crossing Tassie, dragging a pool of very cold air from Antarctica up to southern Australia. The upshot of this is gale-to-storm force winds, and significant reductions in surface temperature and freezing level overnight tonight. By this evening, rain should turn to snow down to elevations of 200m across the Western and Central Plateaus, and a Bush Walkers Weather Alert has been issued for these areas tonight and tomorrow. 

Image: Latest colour mean sea-level pressure analysis for 10am AEST Sunday 11th September from the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology 

Image: GFS forecast temperature and wind at 850 hPa (approximately 1500 m altitude) for 1pm AEST Sunday 11th September 

Tomorrow morning is expected to be a cold one for much of Tassie and even some of the NSW and Victorian alpine areas, as can be seen in the forecast surface temperature map below. Icy conditions are expected on roads in the Western and Central Plateaus as well as the Upper Derwent Valley and South East forecast district, and a Road Weather Alert has been issued for these areas for tomorrow (Monday 12th). In addition to snow at higher elevations, showers are expected to continue across much of the Apple Isle tomorrow. Between these and the expected cold temperatures, a Sheep Graziers Warning has also been issued for the Midlands, Upper Derwent Valley and South East forecast district, as the forecast weather conditions do pose a risk to life of sheep and lambs.

Image: ECMWF forecast surface temperature and winds for 10am AEST Monday 12th September 

A Severe Weather Warning for damaging winds related to the same weather system has also been issued for the NSW Snowy Mountains during the early hours of Monday morning. Be sure to stay up to date with weather warnings at https://www.weatherzone.com.au/warnings