Gale warnings in place for parts of NSW and Victoria as temperatures plunge

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Sydney and Melbourne will endure a week of wintry temperatures from Wednesday as a sweeping cold front brings the change of season to south-eastern Australia.

A minimum of 9C is forecast for Sydney’s western suburbs on Wednesday morning, with the rest of the city reaching the same temperature on Thursday.

Liverpool is expected to go as low as 5C on Thursday morning and minimum temperatures will remain between 6C and 7C until Monday. For the rest of the city, a minimum of 12C and a maximum of 18C is forecast for Wednesday, with a range of 9C to 19C on Thursday.

Winds of 25 to 35km/h will make the cold snap feel even icier on both days. The Bureau of Meteorology expects that with windchill, the temperature will be between 0C and 3C degrees through western Sydney on Thursday and between 6C and 9C in Sydney on Wednesday.

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Jordan Notara, a senior forecaster at the bureau, said the low temperatures were due to a cold front moving through New South Wales.

“Wednesday morning we’ll be seeing some rain and a possible storm in Sydney, and going into Thursday we’ll have clearer skies but are seeing the result of the cooler air coming in from behind that front.”

Temperatures will be similar in Melbourne, with a minimum of 7C on Wednesday and a series of single-digit mornings every day until Monday.

A gale warning is in place for Wednesday for Victoria’s west, central and central Gippsland coasts, with a strong wind warning for Port Phillip, Western Port and the east Gippsland coast.

In NSW a gale warning is in place for the north, mid-north and central coasts, and there is a strong wind warning for Sydney and the Illawarra.

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On Tuesday morning a severe weather warning for South Australia was cancelled after a low pressure system near Mount Gambier moved further to the south-east. But on Tuesday afternoon the state emergency service was still advising that residents keep clear of fallen power lines, fallen trees and debris, and avoid driving through flood water.

Also on Tuesday, a thick blanket of smoke in Sydney brought air quality to a “hazardous” level. The smoke – a result of hazard reduction burns at the weekend – meant Sydney rated worse than parts of Beijing on the world air quality index at times during the day.

Paramedics treated more than 80 people across the state with asthma or breathing difficulties, and NSW health authorities issued a warning to the young, elderly and those with respiratory conditions to stay indoors.