New South Wales snow and floods a sharp contrast to 2013 bushfires

Updated

This time last year, the Blue Mountains were covered in smoke from raging bushfires; today parts of them are blanketed in snow.

A severe storm that has battered New South Wales over the past day has cut power to tens of thousands of properties, prompted dozens of flood rescues, brought down trees and resulted in a snowstorm in the Blue Mountains.

The scene is a stark contrast to the catastrophic bushfires that damaged or destroyed more than 300 homes this time last year.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Deryn Griffiths said while the flooding and snow were a marked change from last year's fires, this sort of weather was not unprecedented.

"In 2012 we had a similar system in October where we had an east coast low that brought snow to the Blue Mountains and we had local flooding and even heavier rainfalls at Ulladulla," Ms Griffiths said.

Strong wind gusts and large swells similar to this year were also a feature of the 2012 storms.

"There's certainly a lot of variability, from fires to flooding," Ms Griffiths said.

Just because parts of New South Wales were currently under water did not mean the threat of bushfires was completely erased, she said.

Only weeks ago, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service warned this year's bushfire risk was even higher than last year.

"The rain brings some temporary relief," Ms Griffiths said.

"For the grassland areas it's a temporary effect, for the forest areas it's a longer effect.

"I wouldn't be too quick to say that that's it for bushfires for the rest of the summer."

The bushfires that burned in the Blue Mountains between October 16 and 29 last year destroyed 196 homes and damaged 130, however there was no loss of life.

The Blue Mountains City Council described the bushfires as the "worst disaster in Blue Mountains history".

Topics: storm-event, bushfire, sydney-2000, nsw, lithgow-2790

First posted