New South Wales and Queensland had heaviest snow for decades as 16in dropped in some areas

Several towns in eastern Australia were blanketed with their thickest layer of snow in decades as wild weather swept the area over the weekend. The Telegraph has the story.

Cars, roofs and gardens were completely white as a cold air front dropped as much as 16in (40cm) of snow on parts of northern New South Wales on Saturday, the most since the mid-1980s.

Snow also settled in areas of the neighbouring state of Queensland for the first time in ten years, Miriam Bradbury, a meteorologist at Australia’s weather bureau, said.

The snow, combined with heavy rain and thunderstorms, has led to more than 1,455 incidents, according to the New South Wales State Emergency Service.

Thousands of homes are expected to remain without power for another 24 hours, while mobile phone outages have been widely reported across the area.

More than 200 vehicles were stranded on roads due to snow, storms had damaged buildings, and major flood warnings were issued.

The rain started to ease on Sunday, but parts of New England in New South Wales were told to evacuate ahead of major flooding expected on Monday.

Ms Bradbury said climate change has made Australia’s weather more volatile in recent years, but that this sort of event had only occurred several times in history.

Read the full story here.