Continued snowfall in Tasmania has forced the closure of a number of schools and roads across the state.

The weather bureau said the snow came after a front crossing the state brought very cold south-westerly air behind it.

On Friday morning, snow was falling as low as 200 metres, adding to already significant levels of settled snow in parts of the west, Central Plateau and far south.

The Education Department closed government schools in Collinsvale, Franklin, Geeveston and Huonville.

Forecaster Debbie Tabor told ABC Radio Hobart the snow was expected to continue throughout the day.

“We’ve got snow to around 200 metres, it’s only very slowly retreating to around 500 metres this evening,” she said.

Police urged motorists to drive to the conditions as snow had settled on a number of roads across the state, forcing some to be closed.

The bureau said minor flooding was occurring in the upper Huon River and warned rain, snow and snow melt could cause the River Derwent to flood.

A full list of school closures and road closures can be found online.

Young student Linda Robertson said she was excited to wake up and find snow outside her house.

“Mum looked up on Facebook and saw that (school was) closed due to the snow here,” she said.

    

Snow hits farmers during lambing season

The recent spring snowfalls have taken their toll on sheep farmers as they arrived during the six-week lambing season.

Ouse sheep farmer Bernard Brain said his flock of about 2,100 ewes started lambing a week ago, just when the weather took a turn for the worse.

“On Monday, we’d only had 20 or so lambs but we lost three-quarters of them in the snow that came down that night,” he said.

“They wouldn’t have had much of a chance.”

Mr Brain said the only thing farmers can do is move the stock into more protected paddocks and put hay bales in place for them to eat and hide behind.

“We choose the more sheltered paddocks but you have to keep the ewes in relatively small groups or you risk mismothering, especially if they have twins,” he said.

“You can’t put them in sheds because they get hungry and it hasn’t been a brilliant season for feed.”

Mr Brain said the last time they had snow at his property was in 1990.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting showers for Tasmania’s west, south and Central Plateau over the weekend, falling as snow to about 500 metres on Saturday morning.