Australia’s wild weather: heat in north, snow in south and a mini-cyclone hits Port Macquarie

Australia’s summer weather continues to throw up extremes with perfect beach weather in Sydney contrasting with a wintry blast in Victoria and extreme humidity and heavy storms in Queensland. 

Sydneysiders flocked to beaches on Saturday as the hot weather continued with a maximum of 29C and perfect sunny conditions. 

Similar conditions are forecast for the city on Sunday with a southerly dropping the temp by a couple of degrees.

Queenslanders, meanwhile, sweated through another oppressive night with intense humidity ahead of a southerly change on Sunday that is expected to moderate the heatwave. 

The national contrast was captured by temperatures of just the 15C in Melbourne and Hobart on Saturday morning, compared with nearly 31C in Brisbane. 

Similar conditions are forecast for Sydney on Sunday with a southerly dropping the temp by a couple of degrees.

The national weather contrast was captured by temperatures of just the 15C in Melbourne and Hobart on Saturday morning, compared with nearly 31C in Brisbane and mid-20s in Sydney (pictured, beachgoers at Bondi Beach on Saturday morning)

In Victoria snow flurries fell in the Alpine towns of Mount Hotham, Mount Buller and Falls Creek after the temperature dropped to 2C on Friday.

Meanwhile, a mini-cyclone hit the NSW mid-north coast town of Port Macquarie on Friday, with heavy winds, rain and hail hitting the town at around 3pm and leaving 11,000 people without power.

Residents reported debris flying ‘everywhere’ as a metal roof was ripped from its supports and flung into the street alongside uprooted trees.

The wild weather started as a small hail storm and quickly ramped up as heavy winds blew around town, shaking office buildings and moving boats docked in the port.

Fire and Rescue NSW said in a statement the gusts of wind ripped the roof off an apartment block in Hastings River Drive, one of the main roads into town. 

They also state that two gum trees were split apart and fell onto a car, while another tree was thrown through powerlines in the town’s CBD.

Heavy winds, rain and hail hit the NSW mid-north coast town of Port Macquarie on Friday afternoon ripping apart small businesses (pictured) and leaving 11,000 without power

Port Macquarie residents reported debris flying ‘everywhere’ as a metal roof was ripped from its supports and flung into the street alongside uprooted trees.

‘It was definitely the scariest weather event that I’ve ever been in,’ Port Jet Cruises deckhand, Luke Barry, told the ABC.

‘I felt the office shaking around and I was very afraid that it was going to start blowing away.’

The State Emergency Service received more than 60 calls for help during the intense weather and have had no injuries reported. 

Wildly different weather systems are expected to hit the nation with expected 24C differences in maximum temperatures between inland WA and the mid to lower east-coast 

Meanwhile there’s an enhanced risk of tropical cyclone development off Australia’s north west coast in the week.

Some models even suggest that there could be multiple tropical cyclones in the region by the middle of the week, however it is too early to know if they will reach the coastline.

Areas of Queensland are expecting to receive over 100mm of rain early next week. 

Parts of the Northern Territory and New South Wales are also expected to receive some wet weather later in the week.  

While cooler temperatures persist in the country’s south-east, parts of Western and South Australia could see 44C days in the week ahead as a mass of heat collects over the continent’s interior.

Heavy rain is expected to hit most areas in Queensland early next week and then spread to parts of the Northern Territory and New South Wales (stock image)