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Ballarat almost experienced its coldest ever September day on record, as snow falls blanketed the region. As gardens turned bright white, Ballarat's temperature looked like it had maxed out at just 5.8 degrees at 10am on Friday morning, lower than the six degrees recorded on September 15, 1957. At 1.40pm, it was just 0.1 degrees. However, by 4.50pm as the sun came out, the temperature actually climbed to 6.9 degrees. While officially the Bureau of Meteorology's snow level was 600m on Friday, the fact that Ballarat's temperature dropped below zero meant snow fell lower than expected. But it wasn't just Ballarat which copped a dumping, with even lower laying areas such as Lismore and Mortlake also receiving heavy falls. See the amazing collection of images by clicking on the comments in the post below. Mt Buninyong was a usual attraction, although there were some reports of cars struggling to gain traction at the top of the mountain. One particularly keen skier was even spotted cutting a shape down the 10th fairway at Buninyong Golf Club. Ballarat's altitude is 435 metres in the city centre, while Mt Buninyong is 719 metres. Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Miriam Bradbury said it was an unusually strong system to occur so deep into September. "Snow in September is not unheard of in early spring, but it is unusual to see the snow hanging around on the ground," she said. "It's something very difficult to track in terms of observations. "All of the data we have is reported to us by people phoning in, or on social media. "We base our estimates on what we see, and you'd say for what we've seen today, it was 1cm or 2cm that has fallen." Ms Bradbury said the cold weather was likely to hang around for the weekend, but it will be much warmer in comparison with tops of 10 degrees and 12 degrees planned. The weather will gradually warm up next week with a top as high as 23 expected by Friday. BOTANICAL GARDENS SMYTHES CREEK LAKE WENDOUREE DELACOMBE BALLARAT CENTRAL MT BUNINYONG HADDON ST PATRICK'S COLLEGE SOLDIERS HILL SEBASTOPOL BALLARAT GOLF COURSE CANADIAN LAKES MT CLEAR WOOWOOKARUNG REGIONAL PARK GORDON ILLABAROOK LISMORE SKIPTON BEAUFORT If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.

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