So having a look at Thursday, we see that cold front moving out towards the east and a low pressure system developing over the southern Tasman Sea. Showers increase across south-east parts of New South Wales, and further south we will see small hail, including around the Melbourne area, and still very cold south-westerly winds pushing through. Those winds are forecast to intensify overnight Thursday and into Friday, particularly around Bass Strait. And we will be issuing Severe Weather Warnings for damaging winds. And those will cover parts of Tasmania, eastern Victoria and south-eastern parts of New South Wales. So do keep an eye on those warnings.
Through the day, those weather systems move out over the Tasman Sea, showers contract to southern coastal areas, with still cold southerly winds pushing through. And we will see conditions easing and clearing as we head towards the weekend. So how much rainfall are we expecting? Well, out to Friday night we can see most of the rainfall is forecast across southern Victoria and western Tasmania. Western Tasmania could see areas of more than 50 mm of rainfall to Friday night.
For Victoria, the highest rainfall totals are actually expected across Melbourne's eastern suburbs, out towards the Dandenong Ranges and down towards southern parts of the Gippsland. For the elevated areas, most of this will actually fall as snow, but for inland parts, particularly out towards Adelaide as well, we really only will see up to about 5 mm of rainfall. So unfortunately these areas do look to miss out on the bulk of the rainfall this time.
Now, in terms of snow, we can see as this cold front moves through on Wednesday night into Thursday, these blue colours indicate very cold air moving up from deep in the Southern Ocean, and the snow level will drop quite significantly. For Tasmania, snow is possible above about 500 meters, for Victoria, that's 600 meters, which does mean possible flurries for the Grampians as well as the Macedon Ranges. For the alpine areas of Victoria and New South Wales, snow is possible above about 700 meters, including for the alpine ski resorts, and for New South Wales, snow is possible above about 800 meters through the Blue Mountains. At this stage we're not expecting blizzard conditions, but snow, ice and sleet can make travel conditions dangerous, so do keep across the latest forecast over the coming days if you are in elevated parts of the country.
Now looking at some of the temperatures more broadly across the region, Thursday will be the coldest day for many people of the year so far, including for Melbourne, Canberra as well as Adelaide. Temperatures struggling to climb into the teens for many places, and for some areas single digits are possible, particularly across elevated parts of the country. Now heading into Friday, we do see some of that cold air pushing up into northern New South Wales. Temperatures gradually starting to rise across Tasmania, Victoria as well as South Australia. And then into Saturday, we gradually start to see the temperatures climbing yet again, and we are looking at a settled and milder weekend to come.
So with the first burst of cold weather so far this year to impact much of south-east Australia, do keep across the latest forecast and possible warnings over the next few days. You can find these on our website and app.
