Australian Snow makes a remarkably brief appearance
Australian Snow arrived across the Northern Tablelands, posed for Landsat 8 and left before anyone could work out where the spare gloves had gone. Up to forty centimetres fell in places, among the largest totals in decades.
The satellite captured the rare white landscape through a break in cloud on 3 August. On the ground, the snow soon melted. Tourism officers had already planned scarves, fondue and a six week musical called Armidale on Ice.
The weather was not merely a novelty. The wider system also brought flooding risks, damaging winds and large coastal swells. Those hazards are serious, and people should follow official advice. The joke is reserved for snow behaving like a celebrity with a very tight schedule.
The satellite gets the only publicity still
“We rehearsed sleet,” said Bruce Flake Tucker, Artistic Director of Temporary Winter. “This performer brought texture and range, then demanded a sub zero dressing room and vanished.”
Rare snow has a particular effect in places unused to it. Adults become amateur meteorologists. Children become experts in transport logistics. One shop attempts to sell a hundred tiny hats before the ground changes its mind.
Landsat 8 preserved the scene from orbit. Every child preserved it in a freezer beside peas, a fish finger and a mystery container that no adult feels able to identify.
Scientists did not agree to make winter permanent. Weather has declined to accept petitions, promotional partnerships or a strongly worded request from a ski hire shop with unsold boots.
The snow declines all interview requests
By the time everyone had found a camera, much of the snow had become water again. This was a rapid exit, though still more orderly than a school car park after the first rumour of a snow day.
The snow promised an encore. It then became a puddle and left its agent to explain the creative differences.
Read the real story: NASA’s account and satellite view of the rare snowfall.
