![Dawn breaks at Perisher on Thursday as snow guns prepare for the opening of the season.](/web/20170604013419im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/h/v/i/o/image.related.wideLandscape.460x259.gwif54.png/1496304197750.jpg)
Clear skies, light winds start ski season at Perisher
Southern NSW is set for an "excellent" early opener to the ski season, with clear skies and light winds this weekend.
Southern NSW is set for an "excellent" early opener to the ski season, with clear skies and light winds this weekend.
The first day of winter didn't disappoint: Canberra dipped to minus 4.2 degrees on Thursday morning.
Sydney has capped off a mostly mild autumn with a cold snap that made it feel like winter has landed a tad early.
Perisher will open one week ahead of the snow season after dumps of 20cm across the valley.
Sydney's mild autumn spell has given way to a blast of frost and sub-zero temperatures overnight.
Some chilly mornings ahead but otherwise the scene is set for a pleasant start to winter.
Sydney's unusually warm May looks set to continue with sunny dry conditions forecast for the rest of the week.
Friday was Canberra's wettest day of the year but forecasters are calling it a "one hit wonder".
A severe weather warning has been issued for the Perth Metropolitan area and the South West and Great Southern regions as a heavy storm front bears down.
"There's a thousand different long range forecasters out there and I don't believe any of them."
Sydney's sparkling mid-May conditions will make way later this week for the city's wettest spell in more than a month.
Canberra shivered through a freezing Monday morning but there was one silver lining.
Sydney's mild autumn is set to extend well into May.
At least 10 people have been killed by tornadoes or flooding in the US South and Midwest with a rare late-season blizzard hitting western Kansas.
The warm and sunny weekend weather is set to continue for Sydney, as the week gets off to a bright start ahead of showers and cooler temperatures on Wednesday.
Temperatures in the capital slipped to minus 1.8 degrees at 6:50am on Friday.
A cold snap is likely to give way to a milder few months ahead.
Autumn is likely to feel a lot like winter over the coming days - particularly in the evenings and early mornings.
The worst of Cyclone Cook is over, leaving some wondering: "Was that really it?"
Blue skies and mostly above-average temperatures are forecast across Sydney this Easter long weekend.
More rain could fall in Melbourne on Sunday than is usually recorded for the month of April with damaging winds and possible flash flooding also forecast.
Three people from the same family are feared to be dead in a car that disappeared in floodwaters.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned insurers not to delay making payments to flood-hit regions of the state's north as the damage bill from last week's floods continues to rise.
NSW floods continue to wreak havoc, with new evacuation orders expected later on Saturday.
Torrential rain has flooded towns and cities in northern NSW, with fears lives have been lost.
Stacy Smith's family were forced to quit their new beachside home after mould rotted the carpet of one of the children's bedrooms and infiltrated the walls and ceiling, resulting in dangerously high levels of mycotoxins.
Sydney copped almost triple the usual rainfall in March and the sodden conditions are likely to extend well into April, the Bureau of Meteorology predicts.
Thousands have abandoned their homes in northern NSW and hundreds of people rescued from floodwaters as the remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Debbie bore down, dumping a staggering amount of rain on the region.
The widespread flooding in northern NSW has prompted the Insurance Council of Australia to add the region to its catastrophe declaration in the wake of Cyclone Debbie.
Sydney is in for a sodden end to what is likely to be its wettest March in 42 years as a strong cold front bumps into the remnants of powerful ex-tropical Cyclone Debbie.