Unexpected snow in Australia

June marks the start of winter in Australia, but this year strong winds and bitter temperatures have hit the east coast, bringing unexpected snowfall. This image, captured on 4 June by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, shows the unusual layer of snow over the Southern Tablelands, southwest of Sydney. 

Several centimetres fell across the Goulburn area, which is in the bottom right corner of the image. Snow also fell in the Yass Valley, the Blue Mountains, as well as in the subtropical region of Queensland. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology described the weather as rare considering the ‘sunshine state’ hadn’t received snowfall since 2015.

The unexpected weather led to road closures and travel warnings. Further weather alerts have been issued across the east coast, including Sydney.