NSW hit by snow, wind, floods - and locusts

Photo / Supplied

SYDNEY - New South Wales residents must be wondering what they've done to annoy an increasingly erratic Mother Nature.

Parts of the state recorded their coldest December morning in several decades yesterday as summer snow fell in the Snowy Mountains, wild winds rattled the coast, and more than 500 people were still cut off by the worst flooding in years.

The State Emergency Service received 74 calls for help from people in the Illawarra, Sydney and the Blue Mountains as gusts of up to 100 km/h brought tree branches crashing down and damaged roofs.

Temperatures plummeted to 4C at Parkes Airport in central NSW, 10C below average and the coldest December morning in 54 years, the Weather Channel says.

Coonamble in northern NSW recorded 7C - the coldest December morning in 12 years while Trangie, northwest of Dubbo, had 6C - the coldest December morning in 42 years.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting an unseasonably gloomy Christmas, with rain forecast for just about every part of the state between December 24 and Boxing Day.

It comes on top of the worst Spring locust plagues for years, which, coupled with the flooding, have wiped hundreds of millions off farming incomes.

But not everyone is annoyed at the weird weather. In Snowy Mountains ski resorts there was joy at the unseasonal coating of snow.

On the flooding front, the all-clear was given for Wee Waa, in northern NSW, on Sunday where 1700 residents had earlier been cut off.

About 200 people remain isolated further west at Carinda. And about 300 people are isolated in mainly rural properties in the rest of the state.

- AAP