A RARE intense February cold snap is currently hitting southern Australia with temperatures up to a whopping 15 degrees below average through much of the nation's south-east.
While temperatures are struggling to make it to the mid-teens in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, in the west and the north it is a different story.
In Western Australia centres like Geraldton are experiencing a run of days in the high 30s and low 40s, while in south-east Queensland temperatures are in the low to mid 30s but with sweltering humidity rates of up to 80 per cent.
But it is the southern cold snap that is the most unusual feature in national weather at present.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said conditions in the south were 10 to 15 degrees cooler than normal for February, with the band of cold weather extending up into central NSW, northern SA and even the south of the Northern Territory.
"We'll see parts of northern Victoria, where temperatures normally average around 30 for February down to well below 20 and even Alice Springs will be 10 degrees colder than normal," Mr Narramore said.
He said the cold conditions were being caused by a strong low pressure system being pushed up from the Antarctic.
"It pushed up south of Western Australia and is moving across southern Australia, causing extremely cold conditions for this time of year."
"Normally highs pushed down by the monsoon dominate southern Australia at this time of year but at present there is a high to the west of WA and one out in the Tasman towards New Zealand so this cold systems was able to squeeze through the gap and have a big influence."
Friday's maximum of 17 at Horsham in western Victoria is within a degree of the coldest February day on record at the nearby Longerenong weather station, which has records back to 1860.
Snow is forecast as low as 1300 metres in Victoria and Tasmania.
Mr Narramore said while the cold conditions, paired with squally wind and showers, were unusual they were not unprecedented.
"There was heavy snowfall in the Alps in 2004 in February and in 2016 we also saw temperatures markedly below average."
"We'd probably see a system of this intensity once every five to ten years."
He said central NSW was the border between the hot and the cold.
"Sydney is about average, Newcastle is warmer and Wollongong is cold."
Mr Narramore said while the mercury would plummet big falls were not expected.
Instead, the focus for rain nationally will be in the north where storm-driven falls through the tropics could be significant.