After an awesome autumn of fine, warm and sunny weather, winter has struck with a vengeance with temperatures plummeting.

While May snow is not uncommon in Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology says this is an unusually cold system for so early in the year with the mercury not expected to climb above 13 degrees in Ararat and 12 degrees in Stawell today.

Mount William is expected to experience up to 25mm of rain with sleet and a dusting of snow highly likely.

Senior Forecaster Michael Efron said it is not likely to cause enough rain to be considered the May break in weather that farmers are desperate for.

“The rest of the region can expect between 10mm and 20mm of rain,” he said, “It’s probably not as much as farmers would have been hopeful for.

“You wouldn’t call this the May break at this stage.”

Most of the rain is expected to fall in East Gippsland with the cold front anticipated to join up with an east coast low.

The combined fronts could see up to 150-200mm of rain over the next few days in areas such as Lakes Entrance and Orbost.

In Melbourne, the city can expect about 40mm of rain over the next two days, close to its monthly average in the space of 48 hours.

But if you think it’s cold here, spare a thought for our friends in Ballarat who shivered through an eight degree maximum yesterday and are not expected to climb above 10 degrees today.

Mr Efron said the early blast of winter should moderate quickly.

“It will rise a couple of degrees on Friday, but what you will notice is the wind,” he said.

“The shower activity will also remain for a few days before we return to more normal temperatures for this time of year.”