Roads are closed and snow predicted for the Brindabellas and possibly even high suburbs of the capital as Canberra's temperatures are drop from its warmest July day in four years to its coldest in two years.
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In the 24 hours to 1pm, about 12 millimetres of rain had fallen at Canberra Airport, and more than 14 millimetres in Tuggeranong.
A severe weather warning has been issued predicting damaging winds over the Snowy Mountains and the ACT, and a sheep graziers have been warned about a high risk of lamb and sheep losses due to the extreme conditions.
ACT Policing said Mt Franklin Road and Bendora Road have both been closed due to the current weather conditions.
Two 17-degree days in a row on Wednesday and Thursday was the warmest run of July days since 1975, and Thursday's top of 17.4 degrees the warmest July day since 2009.
But Ben McBurney, a meteorologist with Fairfax-owned Weatherzone, said the region should brace for a very chilly weekend.
"We're going to have the strongest cold front of the season coming through during Saturday. It's going to bring obviously some very, very cold air with it and some showers as well," Mr McBurney said.
"It's going to gradually cool right through Saturday as the cold air mass comes in, and probably the coldest air in the forecast is Sunday, when the air mass peaks at its coldest."
Canberra and the Snowy Mountains will likely see rain over Friday and possibly continuing into early Saturday before the cold front arrives mid-weekend.
Come Saturday night and Sunday morning, the temperature will drop to an overnight low of 1 degree and is expected to peak at just 7 degrees during the day - the coldest July day in two years - with apparent temperatures likely to be much colder still.
Mr McBurney said snow would fall on the Brindabellas down to 800 metres on Saturday and Sunday, but could fall as low as 600 metres overnight on Saturday - which meant, if the moisture made it beyond the ranges, a light dusting was possible for some of the capital's higher suburbs.
"If it rains in Canberra on Sunday, you could get a light snow shower in there. But it looks more likely on Sunday it will be a bit too dry for that, and the Snowy Mountains and the Brindabellas look like the most chance of seeing snow,'' he said.
The cold front's icy air has the mountains looking at freezing top temperatures - 5 degrees below zero on Sunday at Thredbo Top Station and minus 2 in Perisher Valley.
When (and of course, if) it snows this weekend, we'd love to see your photos from around the region. Send pictures to to sunday@canberratimes.com.au with a details of where and when the shot was taken, by whom and a contact phone number. We'll share your photos with the rest of Canberra on the site.
