We know what you’re thinking – “it’s so bloody cold it must be about to snow”.
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Well, not really.
In fact, even with today’s brisk temperatures, snow is a long way off.
The forecast is that tonight will fall to a minimum of -3 degrees, but still snow is only forecast down to 900m.
To put that in context, Ballarat’s altitude is only 423m.
The highest mountains around here are still a fair way off 900m as well, so it seems highly unlikely we will get any snow.
Mountains around Ballarat, according to Bonzle.com:
- Mt Buninyong – 754m
- Mt Warrenheip – 746m
- Leonard’s Hill (near Daylesford) – 740m
- Clarkes Hill – 718m
- Mt Misery (near Beaufort) – 686m
- Daylesford – 576m
- Gordon – 564m
- Ballarat – 423m
The other issue is it is most often below zero in Ballarat when it is clear overnight when the lack of cloud cover means all the heat escapes into the atmosphere.
But to have snow you also need precipitation and that needs clouds and temperatures close to zero.
That magic combination tends to come to Ballarat with a Southerly Outbreak, or consecutive low pressure systems building off Antarctica and blowing in from the Southern Ocean as it did on two occasions in 2016.
So hold tight for now, snow could be just around the corner.
