As south-east Australia shivers and Tasmania expects snow as low as 800 metres, up where the bananas grow the long-awaited rain is coming — more than 400 millimetres of it.
Temperatures may have been relatively balmy from Good Friday to Easter Sunday in the south-east, where conditions were 4 to 8 degrees Celsius above average, but a series of cold fronts have brought all that to an end.
The Bureau of Meteorology's Jackson Browne says now the pendulum is swinging the other way, with temperatures of 4 to 6 degrees below average expected.
"That stretches on for quite a number of days, probably peaking on Friday for South Australia and Victoria with up to 8 degrees below average," the senior meteorologist said.
Melbourne's coldest morning — 9 degrees Celsius — is expected on Friday, while Adelaide is forecast to dip to 10 degrees on Saturday.
Tassie is even expecting snow down to 800m today and 900m tomorrow, putting the Central Plateau and isolated peaks at risk of a dusting.
But snow in Tasmania at this time of year is "not unusual at all", according to Mr Browne.
"You can get snow any month of the year in Tasmania," he said.
Temperatures in Hobart are forecast to be average, though minimum temperatures are barely expected to scrape into the double digits over the next week.
Wet end to holidays
The high-pressure system that has moved in behind the front is not only directing the cold air up from the south, it is also expected to re-establish moist onshore flow up and down the east coast.
The heaviest of the rain for the south east should now have moved offshore with the front.
But the onshore flow should direct enough moisture onto the New South Wales and southern Queensland coast to put a dampener on the end of the school holidays for NSW and back to school for Qld.
"It's just persistent low amounts," Mr Browne said.
A drenching for North Queensland
Further north, rainfall totals are expected to be far more substantial.
After what has so far been a lacklustre wet season, the heavens are finally expected to open over North Queensland.
A moist system is expected to be pushed ashore, bringing elevated winds and heavy rain from Thursday.
With accumulated rainfall totals expected to be in the 400–600mm range and with the chance of isolated heavier falls, it would be enough to completely swamp most of the rest of the country.
But in the tropics, they play by a completely different set of rules when it comes to rain.
"You generally have to have a system that's super juiced up in order to cause a lot of flooding up there," Mr Browne said.
He said it was not uncommon to get 300–400mm on a particular night, though he did concede 500mm would cause some moderate flooding concerns.
"It usually takes the third day of the 300–400mm to cause you significant headaches up there," he said.
Mr Browne said the system was unlikely to have what it took to strengthen into a tropical cyclone.
Several models have the system travelling west across Cape York before heading south and bringing rain to the Lake Eyre Basin next week, but that is a long way out to be speculating on a tropical forecast.
What about the west?
Perth has been dealing with smoke blown in from fires in the east over the past few days.
Conditions are expected to clear now that the fire risk is down for the south west.
The fire danger is still elevated in the Geraldton area, but in the south west things appear to have cooled off a bit.
"Finally getting beneath 30 degrees," Mr Browne said.
