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Extreme fire danger and snow on the same day in NSW

Source Weatherzone Mon 17 Nov 2025

It's a day of dramatic weather contrasts this Monday for residents of Australia's most populous state, as a spring cold front sweeps northwards through New South Wales. Cool air arrived in the state’s south overnight with snow recorded in the Snowy Mountains for the fourth time this November. Image: The top of Thredbo on the evening of Sunday, November 16, 2025, with remnant snow patches from winter (previous November snowfalls have already melted). Source: Thredbo.com.au. Image: The top of Thredbo this Monday morning after the latest cold front, with fresh snow on the ground and snow sticking to the lens of the snow cam. Source: Thredbo.com.au. Ahead of the cold front, strong westerly winds gusted to as much as 96 km/h at Cabramurra in the Snowy Mountains (winds were likely even stronger at Thredbo Top Station, where the weather station was offline). Strong and gusty winds then pushed through to the east coast overnight, with gusts exceeding 70 km/h recorded in many forecast districts on Monday morning. While the airmass in the wake of the cold front is relatively mild, the combination of strong winds and dry air has resulted in high fire danger in most forecast districts, with an extreme rating issued for the Greater Hunter – even though no location in that particular region is expecting a Monday maximum beyond the mid-to-high 20s. Image: Fire danger in NSW on Monday, November 17, 2025, with extreme fire danger and a total fire ban for the Greater Hunter region around Newcastle. Source: NSW RFS. Normally, we associate days of extreme fire danger (or the highest rating of catastrophic) with temperatures soaring into the mid-to-high 30s or even the 40s, but days like today can be just as dangerous for grassfires and bushfires without the extreme heat. Meanwhile the Southern Hemisphere remains in a negative phase of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), which means the dynamic cold weather systems that circulate the globe in the Southern Ocean tend to be pushed northwards towards Australia. READ MORE: Southern Annular Mode - What is the SAM and how does it affect Australia? This does not mean that southern Australia will automatically keep receiving unseasonably cool weather, but it does increase the likelihood, as we have seen in recent weeks. Due to the frequent unseasonable cold fronts this November, Melbourne’s running monthly maximum temperature is about 2°C down on its long-term average, with November 8 being the city’s coldest November day in 80 years, when the mercury reached just 12.7°C. Melbourne should struggle its way up to a maximum of 17°C this Monday (5°C below the long-term monthly average maximum) while Sydney should reach 26°C (which would actually be a couple of degrees above average although it will feel cooler with those westerly winds). - Weatherzone © Weatherzone 2025