Australia

Every now and then a weather map looks, well, beautiful. Last night (Thurday) there was a cool set up to look at as the air flow around the southern and eastern coastlines of Australia and out towards New Zealand drew a stunning picture that even Navigators would be proud of.

The final morning of autumn is feeling unquestionably winter-like across a large swathe of inland Australia.

As autumn draws to an end, another front swept over Victoria over the weekend bringing more rain and blustery conditions. Along with this, a band of thunderstorms that a one point stretched from Nhill to Apollo Bay, generated a total of just over 10,000 lightning strikes across the state.

A cold front is surging across southern Australia today and will reach the Alps on Sunday morning. Initially the front will bring areas of rain, but as the wind changes direction and the temperature plummets snow will begin to grace the mountainside.

Conditions will ease back on Monday before the next front arrives on Tuesday. 

It's going to be a chilly end to autumn in Australia's southeast, with three cold fronts set to sweep through during the six days.

These fronts may become progressively stronger and the air in their wake increasingly cold.

Sydneysiders were woken up Wednesday morning by a loud bang that may have been caused by a rare type of lightning.

Early risers along the New South Wales coast may have been surprised to see big waves as the sun rose this morning.

A large and powerful groundswell originating from a system traveling to the south of New Zealand arrived on Australia's east coast a bit earlier than expected.

Thick fog blanketed Brisbane this morning, reducing visibility on the roads and diverting flights away from the city's airport.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Michael Paech said the thick fog would not last for long after moving in last night. 

Hazard-reduction burning in the east and west brought a hazy start to the weekend in both Sydney and Perth.

Visibility fell to 150 metres at Richmond Airport on Saturday morning as fog mixed in with the smoke. In the Perth area, visibility is was reduced to about two kilometres during the morning.

A waterspout was spotted off the coast of Sydney this morning.

The small but well-defined funnel could be seen descending beneath a layer of low, dark stratus cloud near Tamarama Beach.