News

White Christmas likely for parts of Tasmania

Source Weatherzone Mon 22 Dec 2025

Snow will fall this week from Tuesday, December 23, for at least a couple of days in elevated parts of Tasmania, with a few flakes likely to persist into Christmas Day. That means a White Christmas for our southernmost state in the heart of the Australian summer. Tasmanian summer snowfalls often consist of just a few flakes at the state's highest points, such as the summit of Cradle Mountain (1545m) or Tasmania's highest peak Mt Ossa (1617m). But this week, snow is expected to fall as low as 900m on the Central Plateau and 800m on more southerly areas by Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. So there's a strong chance that the Christmas snowfalls will be experienced not just by bushwalkers in remote, exposed areas, but by residents of towns like Miena (elevation 1052m, population just over 100) on the southern shore of Tasmania’s Great Lake. Even Hobart residents might be lucky enough to catch a flake or two up towards the 1271m summit of Kunanyi/Mt Wellington, assuming the road is open. How unusual is Australian snow at this time of year? Brief snowfalls tend to occur at the highest elevations of Tasmania and the high country of the southeastern mainland at least once each summer. Indeed, Tasmania saw snow a week ago even as bushfires burned in the state’s east, while snow was reported at the mainland ski resorts on December 1.  While the cold fronts that circulate the Southern Ocean tend to slip southwards during the Australian summer, the occasional pool of unstable polar air is always a chance to push northwards at this time of year. That’s what will occur this week, and it’s largely thanks to the jet stream – the swift-moving "river" of air high in the atmosphere which generally blows from west to east.  The jet stream tends to move in waves in what is known a meridional pattern, sharply dipping to the north and south as it moves east. This week, the meridional pattern will allow cold air to be dragged up towards Tasmania and out into the Tasman Sea. Image: The expected pattern of the jet stream over Australia at 11pm this Wednesday, December 24, 2025, showing air from the south being pushed over Tasmania. While the far southeastern mainland will be relatively cool for much of this week, the coldest air and most of the associated moisture will stay south the mainland. Melbourne will experience a brief touch of wintry weather on Christmas Day, with an unseasonably cool maximum of just 17°C. When Melbourne gets cold in winter, Canberra generally does too. But the national capital will miss the coldest weather this week, with a sunny maximum of 26°C expected on Christmas Day – although there will be a chill on Boxing Day morning after a minimum of just 6°C.  In Hobart, a showery Christmas Day should reach just 16°C, with Boxing Day topping out at a brisk 15°C even though skies will start to clear. - Weatherzone © Weatherzone 2025