'Unusual' snow, rain and thunderstorms sweep across eastern Australia

A slew of Australian towns have been blanketed with their thickest layer of snow in decades, as wild weather swept across the east of the country.

As much as 40cm (16 inches) of snow fell in northern parts of New South Wales on Saturday, the most since the mid-1980s, Miriam Bradbury, a meteorologist at Australia's weather bureau, said.

She said parts of neighbouring state Queensland also saw snow for the first time in 10 years.

The New South Wales State Emergency Service said unprecedented snow, coupled with heavy rain and thunderstorms in other parts of the state, has led to more than 1,455 incidents over the weekend.

This included more than 100 vehicles being stranded on major roads and tens of thousands of homes losing power.

A multi-agency search is also underway for a 26-year-old woman who was swept away in floodwaters in the Hunter Valley region, after the driver of a car she was in tried to travel through floodwater, New South Wales Police said.

The driver of the car, a 27-year-old woman, was rescued without any injuries. The search is due to continue on Monday, the force said.

Despite rain easing on Sunday, some parts of New England in the north of New South Wales were told to evacuate before 4pm due to flooding.

Read more from Sky News:Pro-Palestine protest so busy it was 'perilous'First volcano eruption in 600 years in Russia's far east

Major flooding is expected to occur in low-lying parts of Gunnedah, New England, on Monday, as well as Raymond Terrace in the Hunter Region, the New South Wales State Emergency Service said.

While a yellow weather warning for snow remains in place for the Northern Tablelands until 2am local time tomorrow.

Climate change has made Australia's weather more volatile in recent years, meteorologist Ms Bradbury said, but this event was still unusual.

She said: "What makes this event unusual is how much snow we had but also how widespread, covering quite a large part of the northern tablelands."