Snow, wind and fire hit Australia yesterday as an unseasonable icy blast moved across the continent and lightning strikes ignited the explosively dry inland.

Unusual late spring snows fell in Tasmania and the nation's capital, Canberra, while fire fighters battled to contain bush fires west of Sydney, driven towards small towns by high winds.

Further north, in Queensland, the skies turned dark green and hailstones the size of cricket balls smashed property, cars and injured farm animals.

The Bureau of Meteorology said a very cold air mass covering south eastern Australia was moving north across the continent, bringing snow falls. The same air mass was also whipping up inland bush fires, rolling across dry, severely drought affected forests and bushlands.

"The atmosphere doesn't like really strong gradients between cold and warm. It brings the winds and that is what is driving the fires," said a bureau meteorologist, Mr Robb Webb.

"It is very rare for us to see wildfire situations with snow falling about the peaks around those fires - it's just quite incredible," he said.

Sydneysiders, who last month were sweltering in temperatures approaching 40C, were warned by the bureau to prepare for a cold night and don overcoats on Thursday morning.

Less than 100 km (60 miles) west of Sydney, however, scores of fire fighters continued to battle blazes in the heavily forested Blue Mountains amid fears that some small communities might be engulfed.

"We did get some rain, snow and sleet in the area but it wasn't around for long," said Rebel Talbot, spokeswoman for the Rural Fire Service.

In Hobart, the Capital of Tasmania, temperatures fell to mark one of the lowest November days on record. Residents in the south west of the island awoke to a dusting of snow - a week away from the official beginning of summer.

Thousands of people were left without electricity in Queensland when the first big electrical storms of the summer swept across the State's heavily populated south east, unleashing hail and high winds. The storm clusters were travelling at 50 kph, causing the winds to reach gale force. Some parked cars were crushed by falling trees.

The wild weather across Australia came as church leaders issued a combined appeal for people to join a national a day of prayer for rain.

The Reverend Gregor Henderson, President of the Uniting Church of Australia, said Australians needed to seek God's guidance to manage their water resources.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Fish and chip shops ‘selling cobbler as cod’
• T in the Park festival at Kinross
• Body Watch