A weather station in Tasmania recorded its lowest-ever July temperature as high pressure builds over the state.
A weather station at Liawenee registered a minimum temperature of -12.9 degrees shortly after 6am AEST on Wednesday, according to Weatherzone.
“A very cold and dry air mass, combined with clear skies and calm winds beneath a strengthening high pressure system, caused temperatures to plummet across Tasmania on Tuesday night,” meteorologist Ben Domensino said.
“This was Tasmania’s lowest July temperature on record, beating the previous record of -12.5 degrees from Butlers Gorge on July 1, 1983.
“Launceston’s low of -3.1° degrees on Wednesday was also its coldest July morning in seven years.
Meanwhile residents in outer Melbourne woke up their coldest morning of the year so far, with a forecast minimum of zero degrees.
Elsewhere in Victoria, temperatures in Horsham, Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong and the Mornington Peninsula dropped to between –1 degrees and -3 degrees.
Residents in Tasmania, South Australia and southern Western Australia also felt the chill early today, with the mercury stuck at single digits and widespread frost, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Melbourne could be in for a week-long run of mornings at or below 5 degrees.
If this were to happen it would be the first time since June 2013, the coldest week in 11 years.
The cold mornings are being caused by a combination of a cold air mass, clear skies, light winds and a strengthening high pressure system over southern Australia.
This high pressure system will continue to cause bitterly cold temperatures across southeastern Australia over the next few mornings, forecasters say.
