Parts of southeastern Australia, including Melbourne, are about to experience their coldest weekend in three years.

A strong cold front will drag a polar air mass across southeastern Australia this weekend, causing temperature to plummet and delivering a mix of rain, hail, snow, blustery winds and thunderstorms. The cold air can be seen clearly in the satellite images below, highlighted by the large field of speckled clouds to the south of Australia.

Video: Visible true colour satellite images captured on Friday morning.

This will be a noticeably cold change in the weather, with some places likely to see daytime maximum temperature 5 to 8ºC below average for May.

Melbourne is forecast to reach 13ºC on both Saturday and Sunday, although the city may stay closer to 12ºC on Saturday. If both days stay at or below 13ºC, this will be Melbourne’s coldest weekend since August 2021 and its coldest May weekend in 23 years.

This weekend’s wintry mix of precipitation will include rain, hail and snow. Showers are likely to affect parts of SA, Tas, Vic, NSW and the ACT, with moderate to heavy falls possible in eastern Vic and southeast NSW from Saturday night into Sunday. This area of heavier rain will be caused by a developing low pressure system that also has the potential to locally produce damaging winds.

Image: Forecast accumulated rain between now and Sunday night, according to the ECMWF model.

The air should be cold enough for snow to reach around 500m elevation in Tas, 700-800m in Vic, 800-900m in southern NSW and the ACT, and around 900-1000m in central NSW. This will be the first snow of the season for some areas and the second decent bout of snow this week for the Alps.

Weather warnings may be issued in southeastern Australia this weekend, so be sure to check the latest warnings in your area before heading outside.