Blizzards were blowing in the Snowy Mountains on Wednesday afternoon after the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning. Road closures saw some motorists without chains slapped with fines of up to $300.
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A strong cold front, crossing south-eastern NSW is building up gusty north-westerly winds of up to 90 km/hr for Canberra and up to 110 km/hr in the alpine areas.
The weather has caused ACT Territory and Municipal Services to close and set up staffed check points at Corin Road and Brindabella Road.
Angry drivers on the NSW snowfields, some stung with $300 fines for not having chains fitted to their cars, were shaking their heads as furiously as the wind-whipped trees lining mountain roads on Wednesday.
On Kosciuszko Road traffic wardens with orange direction cones helped scores of drivers fit chains to their cars for the journey to Guthega and Perisher resorts.
their first lesson in untangling and clipping chains around their tyres.
Some were ill-prepared, in T-shirts and with nothing to kneel on except the road while adapting their vehicles. They accelerated away in frustration with the delay.
At Discovery Resort’s chain hire shop on the edge of Jindabyne, Paul Copeland said business was brisk.
“Three cars came in one after the other. All fined – about $1000 worth of fines in one go,’’ Mr Copeland said.
Motorists who ignored signs advising two-wheel-drive vehicles to fit chains, heeded final warnings from traffic wardens near chain bays along the Kosciuszko Road, then turned around to Jindabyne and hired a set for $30 a day.
Weather began closing in about 10am, when the temperature at Canberra was 3 degrees and at Jindabyne 8 degrees, with winds chopping the lake’s surface into waves, while 33 kilometres further up the mountains at Perisher it was zero.
Visibility dropped to a few metres at Perisher car park, where the owners of four-wheel-drives left windscreen wipers protruding off the windscreens to avoid them freezing to the glass and headed off to the slopes.
Emergency services are asking Canberrans to stay clear of fallen power lines and trees as the wild weather sets in.
