Snow and hail blankets Victoria

But Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Keris Arndt said it won’t be as big as the winter blast that occurred over the weekend, which saw snow fall in parts of the State normally too low to record a dumping.

The majority of the snow fell on Saturday night, and was seen on Sunday morning in the Macedon Ranges, and out further west into Trentham.

Mr Arndt said while it wasn’t a lot of snow, the snow hung around for most of the day.

He said further up the ranges, there were more significant falls, which lasted long periods of time.

There is currently a base of two metres worth of natural snow at most snow resorts, including Mount Hotham and Falls Creek, which he said was quite substantial.

Mr Arndt said while the snowfall received wasn’t overly unusual, it was one of the most significant falls recorded in recent years.

“Anytime in winter you can get snow like this falling, it’s not unheard of, but you often get an event like this in July not now, although it’s not completely out of the question to see snow fall this late in August,” he said.

“Normally once or twice a year we get a wintery blast like this, sometimes we get more, sometimes the snow is more significant, or sits on the ground for longer, but this is the most significant one we’ve seen in the last couple of years.”

Mr Arndt said the next cold front was expected on Monday and Tuesday, but it won’t be as big as the recent one which caused snow to fall.

“Pretty much anywhere could see some showers, but it’s still a fair way out, so it’s hard to predict where will get it, but it does look like there’s a decent chance,” he said.

He said East Gippsland, where it has been dry, didn’t receive a huge amount of rain in the last week.

“They got small amounts on Tuesday, less than a millimetre on the coastal parts, and up in the highlands, anywhere from two to eight mm,” he said.

“There was a bit on the weekend too, about 10-15mm, but they got less the further east you go.”

He said frosts were likely over the coming nights, as the sky clears up.

While frost threat did not appear extreme, he said, the highest risk for frosts would be in northern Victoria. 

An unseasonably late dump of snow on neighbouring hills surrounding the McCormack family's Mansfield property, Nenagh Pastoral, has James McCormack reminiscing about his childhood.

Mr McCormack said the area was blanketed in sheets of snow on the weekend, following years of absent low region snow falls.

“We used to see snow like that once a year, but that was back in my childhood; it doesn’t come that low nowadays,” Mr McCormack said.

He said temperatures plummeted on Saturday, recording a low of one degree.

Currently calving at the moment, he said he had to be extra vigilant.

“We were fortunate that when it was really cold we didn’t have too much wind, but had we had that chill factor we would have been in trouble,” he said.

He said sheep were doing well in the cold conditions.

“If we were lambing or freshly shorn, it would have been a different story, but all of our lambs are on the ground, and the sheep have a nice, big fleece on them, so they are doing alright,” he said.