WHAT NSW wouldn’t give for some of Victoria’s weather right now.

As one third of NSW burned yesterday, tourists at Victoria’s Mount Hotham resort built snowmen as the state’s chilly weather continued.

Snow also fell in the Snowy Mountains in NSW, as bizarre weather patterns gripped the country.

In northern Australia, a cyclone warning was issued as gale- force winds up to 100kph were expected to whip the west coast of theGulf of Carpentaria today.

Meanwhile, hot, dry and windy conditions prevailed in Sydney with temperatures reaching 42C at Evans Head on the NSW north coast.

Coffs Harbour, Grafton, Lismore, Kempsey and other northern towns also reached a rare 40C degrees. Temperatures are expected to ease in coming days but no significant rainfall is in sight.

The unusual weather pattern is still being caused by a deep low south of Tasmania which has been extremely slow moving. It replaced an equally slow low pressure system, which had dominated for the previous week.

The low pressure system is pushing cool southwesterly winds into the southern states, hence the snow, but further north the same winds are swinging around and coming in across the Blue Mountains and down on to the coastal plains as hot, dry westerlies.

As the winds sink down from the Great Dividing Range, the winds heat up and the moisture is sucked out of them. As a result, humidity levels have reached near record lows all week.

The next few days should see winds shift more to the south and southwest, contributing to lower temperatures, which are forecast to be in the high 20s for Sydney today and tomorrow.

There are fears temperatures in Sydney will once again climb into the 30s by Sunday with a total fire ban in force throughout NSW.

Normally, these conditions would not be sufficient to trigger fire bans or bushfires.

Yesterday, a cyclone warning was declared for coastal and island communities from Port McArthur in the Northern Territory to Karumba in Queensland.