Gales and snow have hit parts of Tasmania today bringing an unseasonal start to the new year. In southern Victoria too, rain and winds gave people a miserable start to 2009. In Victoria wind gusts were recorded around 80km/h. Similarly Tasmania received rain with cold southwesterly winds and gusts hitting 120km/h on the exposed southwest coastline. During the day temperatures plummeted across Tasmania with Hobart dropping from 17 to 11 degrees in just half an hour. Now all eyes are looking to the highlands as rain turns to snow. At the time of writing snow had begun falling on Mt Wellington, overnight the snow line is expected to reach down to around 800 metres. The shock wintry weather is expected to last through until Friday with the risk of snow falling away into Saturday morning as things warm up to something that resembles summer.