Gita Maharaja lives in mountainous Nepal, and yet the first time she saw snow was at Corin Forest on Wednesday.
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She watched as her niece Ujeli Maharaja grasped icy snow in her mitts, threw it into the air and admired the flakes as they sparkled under the clear blue sky.
Ujeli and her family headed down to Corin on Wednesday morning, having heard it was snowing on the first day of winter.
"[Gita] was so excited about it ... We were not sure. But then it was there," Ujeli said.
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"We played, we threw the snowball, we made a snowman too. And we did go for a walk for a while in the snow."
On Wednesday morning, Canberrans woke to find snow had fallen across the full sweep of the Brindabella and Tidbinbilla Ranges, and many peaks in Namadgi.
While the wintry horizon surprised many territorians, the Bureau of Meteorology's Morgan Pumpa said a strong cold front and low-pressure system had created the perfect conditions.
Missed out on making snowmen? Fear not, because the forecast predicts flurries will continue to fall onto the Snowy Mountains into the next week.
Matthew Robbie was on a Wednesday morning jog with Elevate running club on Cooleman Ridge when the sun started to rise, and he realised the Brindabellas were blanketed with snow.
"The whole mountains were just covered. I thought, I'm not going to let that one slip before I get back to work tomorrow," Mr Robbie said.
Mr Robbie took his four-year-old daughter Zena and one-year-old twins out to Corin Forest, bringing a little red toboggan and making a snow slushy with red Gatorade.
"It was a big surprise to see so much [snow]," he said.
"Just from our house in Farrer, we can look out and see the backs of all the Brindabella Range. And to just see them all covered in white ... this early in the year is pretty, pretty nice."
Mr Robbie is keen for his flurry-loving daughter Zena to try the slopes this winter and thinks the early sleet is a good sign of a snowy season.
"I'm predicting a real good snowy winter," he said.
Luckily for Zena, Perisher has brought forward its season opening one week to the coming Saturday, June 4.
A Perisher spokesman said 30 centimetres of fresh snow had been recorded on Tuesday night. Snow showers are expected on the snowfield from Friday until Tuesday, June 7.
Thredbo, which is forecast to record a maximum temperature of only minus 6 degrees on Thursday, is also expecting snow showers in the lead-up to its opening on Saturday, June 11.
Raymond Xinyao, who went to Corin Forest with his family, said he felt lucky to live close to the snowfields.
"We're very lucky. It's getting colder and heavy snows. We live in Dickson so we're coming in less than an hour to [see the snow]," he said.
However, Ms Pumpa from the Bureau warned damaging winds and blizzards were forecast for some parts of the Snowy Mountains.
"It is just really important that for anyone planning to head into the high country [or] the Snowy Mountains, make sure they check the forecast," she said.
A severe weather warning for NSW and the ACT was cancelled shortly after 5pm.
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