Sky is Falling! Snow in Sydney!

Update: Added definition of soft hail.

The global warming denialist blogosphere is undoubtedly salivating, but recent reports of snow in Sydney, Australia have been somewhat premature. Even the Australian press, home to Murdochian sensationalism, is reporting that the Bureau of Meteorology has described the precipitation as "soft hail" and sleet. Soft hail is generally known as snow pellets or graupel in the U.S. Some snow did fall at higher elevations, where such occurrences are not rare.

As far as temperatures are concerned, the lowest temperature this month at Sydney of 5.5°C was not only well above freezing, it was warmer than the low of 3.7°C last July, which was above average at Sydney and across the state of New South Wales as a whole.