Yes, it has snowed in Australia in December, but these are rare and brief events typically limited to the alpine regions of Tasmania, Victoria, and New South Wales. December is the start of summer in the Southern Hemisphere, so snow is highly unusual.
Heavy snow can fall however, at any time between April and December in the Australian High Country, with areas like Mount Dandenong receiving snow in December.
As Perth and other parts of Western Australia swelter, residents of Australia's southernmost state have awoken to a white Christmas. Kunanyi/Mount Wellington in Hobart received a dusting of snow on Christmas morning, and at 8:40am, the mercury on the mountain had fallen to minus 1.4 degrees Celsius.
When was the last white Christmas? Technically, 2023 was the last white Christmas in the UK with 11% of stations recording snow falling, although none reported any snow lying on the ground. Before that, 2022 saw 9% of weather stations recording falling snow, but none with any snow settling.
Australia's coldest temperature ever recorded was -23.0 °C (-9.4 °F) at Charlotte Pass, New South Wales on June 29, 1994, occurring at the Kosciuszko Chalet observing station in the Snowy Mountains, an area known for extreme cold due to its elevation and conditions. Charlotte Pass also holds records for the next several lowest temperatures in the country.
1) Eastern Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica (-94°C)
The Eastern Antarctic Plateau claims the title of coldest place on Earth. Satellite data collected between 2004 and 2016 across Dome Argus and Dome Fuji, an area around the size of Australia, suggests that air temperatures could be around -94°C.
WA — highest temperature 49.0C in Onslow on Wednesday, less than 2C off the Australian record of 50.7C in Onslow in 2022 and Oodnadatta in 1960.
But in the past 20 years the most stations reporting a white Christmas was 30 in 2010. So far in the 2020s there have already been four white Christmases declared with snowfall reported somewhere in the UK but falling snow was only confirmed by at most six stations in a year.
The winter of 2009–10 in the United Kingdom (also called The Big Freeze of 2010 by British media) was a meteorological event that started on 16 December 2009, as part of the severe winter weather in Europe. January 2010 was provisionally the coldest January since 1987 in the UK.
However, the natural variability of the weather will not stop cold, snowy winters happening in the future. In fact, in terms of widespread sleet/snow falling across the UK on Christmas Day, between 1971 and 1992 there was only one year (1980), whereas in the years 1993 to 2004 there were six such occasions.
Snowfall is extremely rare in Australian cities like Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane because these cities have very low elevations and mild climates.
Medicare came into effect. A 115g jar of Vegemite was the first product in Australia to be electronically scanned at a checkout. Advance Australia Fair was proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold the national colours.
"We asked our climate team to go back and have a look, and they reckon the last time that there was measurable snow on Christmas Day was 2006, which was also for southern-western Tasmania, and there was also, I believe, a little dusting on parts of southern Victoria on 2006 Christmas Day as well," he explained.
The best months for snow in Australia are July and August, which usually have the highest levels of snowfall. You will experience approximately 22 inches of snow across each resort during July, and 23 inches throughout August. These levels are almost twice the amount of snow in June and September.
Tasmania experiences the coolest temperatures, with average December highs in Hobart of 68°F (20°C). Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney can experience heat waves with temperatures over 105°F (40°C). Average December highs in Adelaide, Canberra, and Sydney are 79°F (26°C), and in Melbourne, 77°F (25°C).
January 2025 is running 8 degrees BELOW normal, the coldest since 2014. Only 3 times have we been this cold in the last 40 years. Our record cold for January was in 1977 when we were 16 degrees BELOW normal.
Second, we conceive storylines of worst-case cold winter conditions based on two independent rare event sampling methods (climate model boosting and empirical importance sampling): a winter as cold as 1963 is still physically possible in Central Europe today, albeit very unlikely.
January 31-February 2, 2011 Historic Blizzard. Northern Illinois and northwest Indiana were walloped by one of the most powerful winter storms in history between January 31 and February 2, 2011.
Because Christmas occurs during the summer in the Southern Hemisphere, white Christmases are especially rare events there, apart from Antarctica, which is generally uninhabited. A white Christmas elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere is approximately equivalent to having snow in the Northern Hemisphere on 25 June.
Only 20 Christmases have seen measurable (greater than a trace) new snowfall since 1893 (or, about 16% of the time). Only four of these days recorded more than an inch. Another definition of a White Christmas can mean the presence of snow cover on the ground (with or without snowfall that day).
Parts of Devon enjoyed a white Christmas in 2004, with Dartmoor predictably seeing most of the snow. However, the snow also reached parts of the county which normally escape the brunt of the cold weather, with Torbay and Plymouth having snow falls in the afternoon and evening of Christmas Day.
Welcome to Marble Bar, officially Australia's hottest town, where the mercury regularly soars past 50 degrees Celsius, and homes can be snapped up for an astonishing average of just $150,000 – $730,000 less the average median house price.
Australia hosts hottest place on Earth, but here's why it's not a heatwave yet - ABC News.
"But it's probably a bit unusual in terms of just how long that heat has lasted." Temperatures above 50C have been recorded just seven times in Australian history.