Higher elevations have a lot of snow on the way

We have a huge weather system over Australia. It has some interesting ingredients:

A cut off low - 'cut off' from the fast westerly winds to our south so that it can move slowly and take it's own path. This is likely to wander from near Adelaide on Friday night, to near Hobart by Sunday night, then continue heading southeastwards.

A huge cold front extending from the centre of the low up into northern Australia, ensuring that the precipitation with this system isn't just with the low but in a huge rainband that crosses the eastern states (stretching from the bottom of Tasmania to the top of Queensland).

A feed of tropical moisture - the key ingredient to get huge precipitation totals - this feed is coming from the Indian Ocean.

Plenty of cold air - the key ingredient to get these huge rainfalls falling as snow about elevated areas.

There's only one problem.

The cold air part isn't over the alps.

Yes it has been very cold, with a pool of cold air lingering after the last weather system. Parts of the NSW alps were as low as -9C on Friday morning!

But this pool is coming to an end, and the warmth associated with the next system is moving in.

For higher slopes this weekend and Monday will be amazing, with 30 to 70 cm of snow. But the snow is likely to change to rain around 1700 metres, only slightly lowering to around 1600 metres for Sunday and Monday. Below this level it may be wet snow at times, but there will also be periods of proper rain.

The cold air finally arrives on Tuesday, and there is widespread snow likely on Tuesday, Wednesday and possibly Thursday, as the next wave of weather systems pass through. These should have snow levels down to around 1400 metres, and even 1200 metres at times - but they won't add up to as much as what the big, juicy low brings. We're likely to see 10 to 30 cm from these colder systems.

So, it'll be brilliant for the highest parts... but a bit of a mess as you head lower.