TOMORROW is looking like being the coldest day in as many as 30 years for parts of SA as an intense front drives in strong, icy winds.
Temperatures are to plummet to four-or-five degrees below the mid-winter average.
Much of Tuesday will be spent in temperatures below 10 degrees and wind will be strong enough to make it feel as much as five degrees colder than that.
These winds should be cold enough for showers to contain small hail and for snow to fall on the Flinders Ranges (most likely St Marys Peak which stands almost 1200 metres above sea level) and possibly on Mount Lofty.
Mount Lofty should only get as warm as four degrees and for those snow searching will feel like it is as cold as minus two at times, particularly during showers.
This coming cold outbreak is showing similarities to ones in the winters of 2006, 2005, 1998 and 1984 but in terms of wind chill, this should feel at least as cold.
Places with the most potential to experience their coldest day in about 30 years include the Adelaide and Mount Gambier areas.
Areas which have a good chance to achieve 18-year lows include the Barossa Valley, Coonawarra, Clare and Cleve.
Parts of the surrounds including the Minlaton, Port Lincoln and Ceduna areas should experience their coldest day in about a decade.
The combination of strong wind and showers brings a significant risk of trees and power lines being felled, as early as today.
Wind has potential to gust to 90-100km/hr, stronger on the exposed coasts and islands during today and tomorrow.
Come Wednesday, wind and showers will ease as the offending cold front and intense low cross into the Tasman Sea.
The cold will not end here. A high pressure system will encourage clearer skies, lighter winds, hence frosty mornings through to the weekend.
