A WINTRY blast surged through the North East last week bringing bitterly cold winds, rain and storms, and blizzard snow conditions to the Alps.
Mount Hotham received a once-in-a-decade Autumn dump of more than 80cm of fresh snow, with some of the snowdrifts over a metre deep by the weekend.
The mercury dropped as low of -4.2C on the mountain on Sunday morning, almost 4C below average.
More than 30cm of snow fell on Dinner Plain while Mount Buffalo turned into an early winter wonderland on Friday morning with 16cm of fresh snow falling on the empty ski fields.
But with the Mount Buffalo and Alpine National parks still closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, people could only enjoy views of the snow-capped peaks from afar.
Closer to Bright, with snowfall as low as 900 metres, a few locals took the opportunity to exercise on snow-covered Mount Porepunkah.
Rain also lashed the region, with Myrtleford receiving 96.2mm of rain from Wednesday to Saturday night, according to the TAFCO weather station.
At Porepunkah, a massive 157mm fell over five days, with over 70mm on Thursday alone.
The deluge ended what has been reported by senior climatologist Blair Trewin as Victoria’s “wettest April since 1974”.
