The first decent cold snap of the season will bring frost to large areas of NSW over the next several days and nights, along with the first decent snow of the season in the Alps.
A large pool of cold air from the Southern Ocean will pass over southeastern Australia during the next few days.
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The passage of this cold air mass will help produce some rain, thunderstorms and alpine snow over the eastern half of NSW today and tomorrow. However, a high ridge will bring clearer skies from Friday into the weekend.
The combination of this high pressure ridge and the lingering cold air mass will see minimum temperatures dropping close to or below zero degrees in many areas of NSW during the next several nights. This setup will produce the first frosts of the season in some parts of the state.
Frost is likely to develop over the central and southern inland of NSW before spreading to the northern inland from Friday night.
Widespread frost will continue to develop on and west of the state's ranges on Saturday and Sunday nights, before overnight temperatures start to warm up a bit early next week.
This week's cold snap is likely to bring the coldest weather so far this year in many areas of NSW, along with around 5 to 15 cm of snow in the Alps between Thursday and Sunday. The chilly weather will come as a noticeable change from the warm and wet conditions that have been a dominant feature in NSW in recent weeks.
NSW just registered its 9th wettest and 11th warmest April on record, based on state-wide average rainfall and mean temperature. Some places in far western NSW even had their wettest April on record.
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