Parts of Queensland shivered through colder weather than Victoria this week, and the Northern Territory has been busy breaking winter records of its own. But an icy blast will soon put the chill back where it belongs.
A significant cold front with damaging winds, rain, and snow is sweeping southern states.
Senior forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology Miriam Bradbury said the system would impact Victoria, Tasmania, south-east South Australia, and southern NSW across the weekend and into next week.
"We already have a severe weather warning current for parts of Victoria for damaging winds developing about elevated parts Saturday into Sunday, and it is possible we could see those warning areas extending into south-east NSW later in the weekend," Ms Bradbury said.
"We are [also] going to see a very low snow level pushing across those south-eastern parts, particularly Tasmania, through Sunday going into early Monday with snow possibly as low as 500 metres."
Winter strikes back
Ms Bradbury said it had been a cold start to winter across large parts of south-eastern Australia.
Alice Springs had its coldest morning on Friday since 2016, at minus 4 degrees Celsius.
"Every night since the third of July has dropped below zero degrees in Alice Springs," Ms Bradbury said.
While the bureau will wait until the end of the season to see how winter 2022 sits in the broader scheme, meteorologists are enjoying this current cold burst, at least from a scientific angle.
"It's certainly really interesting to us as forecasters," Ms Bradbury said.
"High pressure systems at this time of year bring very settled weather so they don't move very quickly. So we see it sort of continuing day after day."
La Niña to 'reassert itself'
Climatologist Emeritus Professor Roger Stone from the University of Southern Queensland said it was not uncommon "every 10 or 20 years" to get these sorts of colder outbreaks.
"It's all associated with big bursts of suddenly cold air and it tends to give us the short intense winters like we're getting at the moment," he said.
Professor Stone said an increase of ice around the Antarctic has led to a lot of snow on the southern Alps causing "what we call the Thredbo Index to go up".
He said wet conditions are set to continue with the current La Niña system expected to reassert itself in the latter part of winter, hanging around until autumn 2023.
Raise a glass to the cold
In Ashton Hills Vineyard, east of Adelaide, winemaker Liam Van Pelt is used to shivering through winter, but he is not complaining.
"Up here it's just flat out cold, probably a little bit wetter than usual," he said.
Wine lovers have embraced the cooler temperatures, flocking to the vineyard to warm up from the inside.
Mr Van Pelt said it had been a welcome boost.
"We've seen a real increase in tourism over the last two months. The cold weather doesn't seem to be deterring too many people," he said.
"Nothing beats sitting next to the fire and watching a bit of fog roll in on an afternoon with a glass of red."
Banana-benders reach for the coats
Back in the sunshine state, Queenslanders should not put the beanies away just yet with temperatures in southern parts of the state dropping to zero or below this weekend.
Stanthorpe, Warwick, Goondiwindi, and St George, and north to Chinchilla, Kingaroy, and Roma will wake to icy mornings.
But for those looking for some winter respite it may be safe to venture to the north again.
Daily highs of 26-27 degrees are expected all week in Cairns.
