Canberra shivers through coldest September morning ever as south-east Australia records freezing temperatures

Much of Australia’s south-east shivered through freezing temperatures overnight, with another frosty morning forecast for Tuesday before temperatures warm back up.
Canberra marked its coldest September morning on record, reaching -6.9C on Monday. The previous September record of -6.8C was set 12 years ago in 2012.
Monday’s temperature was the coldest morning for Canberra in general since last June.
The hills surrounding Canberra also saw snowfall at the weekend.
Widespread parts of inland New South Wales faced some of the coldest temperatures across the country on Monday morning, with a number of locations at or below zero degrees.
Cooma had the lowest overnight temperature across Australia, according to Dean Narramore, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, with a low of -8.2C. Further north, Goulburn reached -6C, Young hit -5.3C, Bathurst -3.9C and Wagga -3.4C.
According to Weatherzone, this was Wagga’s coldest September minimum in 58 years. Additionally, Keith in South Australia reached -4.5C, its coldest September morning in more than 62 years.
Victoria’s alpine areas were the hardest hit by the frosty overnight temperatures, with Mount Hotham recording -6.5C. But even further away from the alps, Omeo saw -4.5C and Rutherglen reached -4C.
Walpeup in the Mallee region saw a low of -1.2C, Weatherzone reported, its coldest temperature in 29 years.
Narramore said the low temperatures were being caused by a “really strong” cold front that whipped across south-eastern Australia over the weekend, bringing snow to some low-level areas.
“That was associated with air coming … almost all the way from Antarctica,” he said.
“That air spread across the south-east and led to both maximum and minimum temperatures being anywhere from five to eight degrees below average [on Sunday], [Monday] and [forecast for Tuesday] morning through much of south-eastern parts of the country.”
Outside of Melbourne, Mount Macedon and Trentham saw snowfall on Saturday, as well as elevated parts of the Yarra Ranges.
Tasmania also experienced some snowfall at the weekend, including much of the central plateau and some lower elevation areas as well, Narramore said.
“[It’s] not record-breaking, but probably these places only see snow maybe once every winter or every second winter,” he said.
The meteorologist said there would be another cold night on Tuesday before warming up the next day, bouncing back to average or above-average temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday.
“Parts of New South Wales could be in the mid-20s by mid to late week, around Sydney [and] inland areas,” he said.
While low temperatures could feel like a shock after a warm August, the spate of cold mornings was “pretty typical” for September, Narramore said.
“[During] September and October, we do still see quite a few cold outbreaks during this time of year.”