Still grey daylight filters through the curtains. Again, it is a day for the fierce heat of an ample log fire. The wind rushes and volleys against the house. Silvery rain sluices down turning to hail and then light snow. The air becomes quiet and still as the snow falls. The countryside is beautiful under the white mantle.

Yes, it was an exceptional day even in a state renowned for unreliable weather, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. A particularly intense cold front has passed through the south-west of Victoria late on Tuesday afternoon was the first warning sign of an unusual day ahead. The air had been forced up rapidly from polar regions and spread across the state, reaching the far east overnight on Tuesday. The speed and depth of the front meant it retained its intensity for longer than usual. The layer of cold air was between five and six kilometres deep, compared to an average shallow front, which would be about two kilometres deep and, by dawn snow had begun to fall in western Victoria.

Snow fell at sea level and usually at this time of year, temperatures would be at freezing at 1500 metres to two kilometres above sea level. Today temperatures were at freezing only about 800 metres above sea level.

This is what caused the precipitation to remain frozen and hit the ground as snow rather than rain in areas that are more renowned for their beach and surf lifestyles.

Snow fell at sea level for the first time since 1986, with falls at Apollo Bay, Ocean Grove and Torquay in the west, Phillip Island and Inverloch in the east and Seaford closer to Melbourne.

"It's certainly the coldest air mass we've had over us for the past 20 odd years," Australian Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Scott Williams said.
Melbourne's temperature dropped to a low of 4.6 degrees at 7.14am and reached only 10.4. The coldest spot in the state was Mount Hotham, which hovered between minus seven and minus eight all day.
The front extended across the nation's south-east, with falls in Hobart and Canberra, including briefly at Parliament House.