20 December 2010

White Christmas?

| johnboy
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thredbo snow [Thredbo this morning]

I’m hearing reports there’s snow on the Hume Highway around Yass.

If anyone’s got any pictures send them in to images@the-riotact.com or just tell us about it in the comments.

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Judith Fordham1:03 pm 16 May 21

I may be late to this party. but I came across the page when I googled “snow Christmas Day Canberra” to see if my very clear memory was correct or not. And it was. I was there. 60’s -could not give you a year.

It did snow in Canberra on Christmas day 1963, I was 6 years old at the time and we woke up to snow completely covering everything even the roads. I remember my Grand Father coming to our house and he made a snow man for us. We thought it was fantastic, was the one and only White Christmas I have seen in my life.

The ‘snow on Christmas day’ definitely happened before 1968, when our family moved here. I put my money on Hercsie.

drfelonious said :

I really dont think snow on Christmas in Canberra is at all likely unless we are about to enter the next ice age.

We can only hope.

I lived in Canberra from 76-86 and I can guarandamntee it did not snow on Christmas during that period.
Having lived in the northern hemisphere since that time, I class Canberra as positively balmy even in July August and often what we call snow in our winter would be called ‘freezing rain’ in those places that actually get snow as a matter of course every winter.
I really dont think snow on Christmas in Canberra is at all likely unless we are about to enter the next ice age.

switch said :

dungfungus said :

D2 said :

My neighbours showed me photos of a snowperson in their front yard on Christmas day – it would have been in the 60s.

It would have been a “snowman” in the 1960s as PC hadn’t been invented then.
Really, giving gender nuetrality to a snowman? Why not go the whole hog and call it a “compressed handcrafted delicate ice crystal flake person”

I really doubt it was an “anatomically correct” snowman in the 1960’s! So a non-specific (gender neutral) description is probably more correct.

If it had snowballs it would be a snow-woman then?

dungfungus said :

D2 said :

My neighbours showed me photos of a snowperson in their front yard on Christmas day – it would have been in the 60s.

It would have been a “snowman” in the 1960s as PC hadn’t been invented then.
Really, giving gender nuetrality to a snowman? Why not go the whole hog and call it a “compressed handcrafted delicate ice crystal flake person”

I really doubt it was an “anatomically correct” snowman in the 1960’s! So a non-specific (gender neutral) description is probably more correct.

D2 said :

My neighbours showed me photos of a snowperson in their front yard on Christmas day – it would have been in the 60s.

It would have been a “snowman” in the 1960s as PC hadn’t been invented then.
Really, giving gender nuetrality to a snowman? Why not go the whole hog and call it a “compressed handcrafted delicate ice crystal flake person”

The Traineediplomat11:00 pm 02 Dec 11

I have a newsclipping from 1978 or possibly 1979 that talks about snow and white Christmas but it was actually hail. So much that it looked like snow. That’s what ye olde article states. I’ll dig it out.

It did snow in Canberra one Xmas day. I remember as I’d been to Pandora’s on Xmas eve so I was hungover and mum said it was snowing on Xmas morning. Of course being hungover I said yeah right but when I got up, sure enough it had snowed. It must’ve been back in the late 80’s or early 90’s.

I wish to cast on some of the suggestions- 1965, high of 32. 2005, high of 24. 2006- high of 18 (small possibility). 1977- high of 24. Other legends are of a white christmas in the mid-80s. There is officially recorded snow (0.8 inches) in the mid-50’s one christams with a high of 11.2 and a low of 1.2 (I can’t remember exactly which year- check the BOM)

I’ve just returned from three days at Thredbo and the snow is fantastic! No idea how long it will last but the snow is thick on Mt Kosciuszko at the moment. If you’re looking for a white Christmas head up there in the next few days and walk to the top (don’t forget to take your beanie and gloves).

troll-sniffer9:42 am 21 Dec 10

Hmmmm I’ve been here since 1960 and I can recall one day, probably in the 80s, could have been the 70s, when some light dustings of snow reached the ground on Christmas Day.

The fall in 1965 was in August, the heaviest recorded snow in Canberra for decades at least, and about 15cm deep on flat ground and over 30cm where the wind had built it up, that was in Braddon, it would have been more on higher ground of course.

I cannot recall any Christmas day falls in the 60s, and I think people’s recollections have probably been swayed into thinking the heavy fall was on Christmas Day.

Surely someone here knows someone at the Bureau of meteorology who can dig up the facts for us? Please?

My neighbours showed me photos of a snowperson in their front yard on Christmas day – it would have been in the 60s.

It certainly did snow in Canberra one Christmas Day – could have been 1965 or 1977 as people recall. It was more than 25 years ago as I lived in Downer at the time. Another time (not Christmas, 1960s) the snow was deep enough for tobogganing in our street and on the slopes of the War Memorial.

surely you can’t have ‘too much’ egg nog? 😉

Well that explains the cold weather we have been having the last couple of days.

I’d be happy with some nice warm wheather, sorry weather (too much egg nog)

old canberran8:20 pm 20 Dec 10

Snow in the city of Canberra is quite rare but I remember it did snow quite heavily in Winter in the mid 60’s and our 2 kids aged around 6 and 5 made a snow man. I remember it snowing in December once when I was a youngster back in the 40’s but the memory is vague as to when and how much.

Pretty sure it snowed one christmas in about 1989 or 1988 too! Only in some parts of the town though!

georgesgenitals6:11 pm 20 Dec 10

“People talk about snow in Canberra on Christmas Day, but googling it shows no real results. Have we ever had snow on a Christmas day?”

1977, I think.

I have never heard of snow on Christmas Day in Canberra, but if definitely snowed in the mountains at Christmas some years ago.

1965 – I’ll dig out a photo

Legend has it that “60ish years ago” it snowed on Christmas in Canberra. My mother tells the story.

OpenYourMind4:53 pm 20 Dec 10

People talk about snow in Canberra on Christmas Day, but googling it shows no real results. Have we ever had snow on a Christmas day?

ConanOfCooma2:46 pm 20 Dec 10

What, a White Christmas?

troll-sniffer2:31 pm 20 Dec 10

Oh no! The migration of the poles has started! Soon the North Pole will be in our backyard! Still, we’ll get presents from Santa a bit earlier lol.

Yeah but Cooma deserves it…….

ConanOfCooma10:46 am 20 Dec 10

We recieved snow forecasts in C-Town, but that was only down to 1300 metres.

We had snow on Christmas Day once, it was either ’05 or ’06. It didn’t settle, however.

No pictures but we spotted it as well. Would love to have confirmation that we weren’t imagining things.

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