Down Under Winter: Rare Snow In Tasmania

Australia Broadcasting Corp gave us
this image of two guys being rescued
from deep snow in Tasmania this week.  

The Tasmanian Devil is probably frozen in his tracks

A rare snowstorm hit Tasmania this week, dropping the most snow in the region since at least 1986.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported two men were rescued from a mountain near Tasmania's capital, Hobart, after the vehicle got stuck amid deep snow and fallen trees.

Elsewhere in Tasmania, cars slid of icy roads, schools closed and people worried about freezing plants and pipes.

Those kinds of issues are common in the winter where I live in northern New England, but are really odd in Tasmania.

A surfer confronts a snowy beach near Hobart,
Tasmania this week.  

Tasmania is an island off the southeastern coast of Australia. Since it's closer to Antarctica than Australia,

Tasmanians do experience winter, but usually there's not much snow except in the higher elevations.

Being in the southern hemisphere, it is winter in and near Australia now. But this year has been tougher than usual. A cold spell in July brought snow to high elevations in much of southern Australia.