Tasmania is to experience a white Christmas for the second year running, according to weatherzone.com.au Snow fell across elevated parts of the state on Monday in an outbreak of cold and unstable air behind a vigorous front. By afternoon most peaks above 1000m had a dusting of fresh snow, which will still cover the ground on Christmas morning. The front pushed across the state in the early hours of Monday morning, bringing gusts of up to 104 km/h at Mt Wellington above Hobart. In the six hours to 3pm, Mount Read in the state’s west had a maximum of just 3 degrees. Christmas snowfalls are rare but not unheard of across higher parts of southeastern Australia. Last year a similar frontal system brought snowfalls to elevated areas of Victoria and Tasmania, with Hobart and Melbourne reaching highs of only 13 and 15 degrees.