Tasmania’s high country could be covered in snow when a cold front crosses the state towards the end of the week – and a young storm chaser is predicting falls of 50 centimetres.
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After the first weekend of skiing, snowboarding and tobogganing at Ben Lomond on Sunday, the summit could again see a dusting of snow later this week.
Mild temperatures are expected across the north of the state on Tuesday and Wednesday before a cold front moves in late.
Brisbane-based storm chaser Thomas Hinterdorfer predicts 49.3 centimetres of snow will fall at Cradle Mountain next week.
According to Mr Hinterdorfer’s modelling, Tasmania could be in for a serious snow dumping next week.
The young storm chaser, who will travel to Tasmania for the snow event, based his prediction on a weather system moving north from the Antarctica about Sunday.
“If anything, the models are showing it to be stronger,” he said.
“The temperatures were from minus five to minus seven, but are now in the minus six to minus nine range.
“Based on what I’ve seen on the models, there’s a big surge coming up from Antarctica that will last until Tuesday.
“From Sunday to Tuesday the models are showing snow in the 30-50 cm range over mountain and lakes in highland Tasmania,” he said, adding there could be up to 20 centimetres of snow to low levels.
But the storm chaser's joy was clouded by the Bureau of Meteorology’s modelling.
Bureau forecaster Matthew Thomas said about five centimetres of snow was expected to fall in the Cradle Mountain and Central Plateau areas on Thursday.
On Wednesday the snow level is expected to lower to about 400 metres in parts of the state late in the day.
On Thursday he said the coldest air would have arrived, and showers could bring snow in the central parts of Tasmania.
“It’s not going to be enormous amounts but there’s going to be some about,” he said.
He expected the summit of Ben Lomond could see a dusting of snow but said there was not “terribly much expected in the North East”.
It is anticipated the snow would dissipate on Friday and Saturday before it returns on Sunday.
Mr Thomas said the snow level could lower to 500 metres and again bring snow to the Central Plateau and Cradle Valley areas.
“There will be a little bit about on Sunday and Monday, and some about Wednesday into Thursday about Cradle Valley and the Central Plateau area,” he said.
Mr Thomas said there was “nothing at all unusual about these cold fronts”.