Clay, Simon and Storm Worley with their snowman.
DIRE forecasts for a significant snow event last Thursday night had the Bombala district battening down the hatches, with some locals stocking up on groceries, bringing in extra firewood and changing travelling plans.
Our local schools even sent notes home warning parents of the likelihood of classes being cancelled for the day if power failures were encountered or teachers couldn’t get to school on snowy roads.
When hail fell that morning and freezing winds chilled the area, it seemed to confirm the predictions. And true to the forecast, snow began to fall on the Thursday night, becoming heavier around 10pm.
Unfortunately for our school students, however, only a thin blanket of the white stuff covered the ground on Friday morning.
In the Bombala township itself only about an inch of snow fell, but with heavier falls of around four inches in the Ando area, the Monaro Highway was closed Thursday night, into Friday.
Of course even a small amount of snow led to great excitement for the young and young at heart, with snowmen popping up around town, and many people out early enjoying the wintery local scenes.
These were made all the more lovely by the bright sunshine that shone down on Friday, although this of course dispatched the snow pretty quickly, and only the shadier, deeper patches remained later in the afternoon.
Hopes have been high for a number of snowfalls this winter, and while we haven’t exactly been skiing down the streets, the prediction is for snow tending to rain this coming Friday, August 17, so you just never know!