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Powerful cold front sweeping across Tasmania

An intense cold front is bearing down on Tasmania with snow forecast to fall down to 400 metres. That’s a low snow level by winter standards, let alone for May.

This week started with a burst of warmth in Tasmania. On Monday, Hobart registered a maximum of 23.7°C – more than nine degrees above the long-term May average high of 14.6°C.

The mercury again topped 20°C in Hobart on Tuesday before cooler air moved across Tasmania overnight. As winds gained strength in the northwesterly stream ahead of the cold front, Maatsukyer Island on the state’s southern tip recorded a gust of 122 km/h early on Wednesday morning.

A little light snow also fell at the state’s highest elevations, with the significantly colder and more moist airmass due by mid-morning on Wednesday.

A very light dusting of snow at an elevation of around 1200m at Mt Mawson, northwest of Hobart on the morning of Wednesday, May 7, 2025. Source: Mt Mawson.

You can see the speckled cloud which is typically associated with the wake of Southern Ocean cold fronts air in the loop below.

Image: 8-hour loop showing radar, cloud and atmospheric water vapour over Tasmania and SE Australia to 7am Wednesday, May 7, 2025.

While this front will bring welcome rain to parts of western Tasmania which have experienced severe rainfall deficiencies in recent months, it will deliver strong winds and slightly cooler temperatures but minimal rainfall relief to parched parts of the southern mainland.

Image: Predicted rainfall accumulation in Tasmania to 10pm on Friday, May 9, 2025, according to the ECMWF model.

For example, while Adelaide received 2.2mm overnight, there appears to be very little further moisture in this event, with nothing on the forecast for the next week. The city’s 2025 running rainfall total to 9am Wednesday is a paltry 26mm. Melbourne is also likely to see only a drop or two.

Back in Tasmania, Hobart has also had a very dry start to 2025, with only around half the average monthly rainfall (or less) recorded in each of the first four months of the year.

The Tasmanian capital can expect showers today, however accumulations are expected to be no more than 5mm, with showers of rain or snow contracting to the state's west and mountain areas by Thursday.