CANBERRA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Authorities have warned farmers in South Australia to keep a close eye on livestock, as rare icy conditions could result in mass "losses of lambs and sheep" if they're not adequately protected from wild weather.
South Australia, traditionally warmer than the eastern states, has been blasted by inclement weather which has caused snow to fall in the nearby hills, but the low pressure system is moving south towards farmland.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) released a warning on Tuesday morning, telling graziers in the Mount Lofty Ranges, Yorke Peninsula, Lower Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island that rare freezing temperatures and gale force winds -- of up to 100 kilometers per hour -- could kill young lambs and other livestock.
The warning comes just a day after the state's capital, Adelaide, suffered its wettest July day in more than 75 years.
More than 37 millimeters fell in less than 24 hours between 9 a.m. on Monday and 9 a.m. on Tuesday, eclipsing the previous record for rainfall in July which occurred back in 1941.
The wild weather forced local emergency crews to respond to more than 200 calls for help; flooded home and fallen trees made up the bulk of the damage, according to the South Australian State Emergency Service (SES).
"It started off mainly with water-related things -- flooding and salvage jobs," an SES spokesperson told News Corp. on Tuesday.
"And as it got past midnight it got more into trees falling down as we saw the wind pick up."
Snow was also briefly falling at Mt. Lofty, near Adelaide, which is just 727 meters above sea level. Snow is a rare occurrence in South Australia -- often occurring just one day a year.
