Equal coldest day on record for Alice Springs

A soaking and shivering Alice Springs has just experienced its equal coldest day on record with the outback town recording a maximum of only 7 degrees this morning! This is a massive 13 degrees below the July maximum average temperature! Yesterday afternoon, the temperature only reached 6.3 degrees, and with winds of around 30kmh it would have felt more like 2 degrees- or the top of Thredbo! In just the first week of July, Alice Springs has already received almost 5 times the July monthly average rainfall with 68.4mm.

It has been an incredible year of weather so far. Average rainfall from January to July in Alice Springs is 174.7mm, yet the town has been soaked by a massive 470.2mm this year already! Minimum temperatures have also been extreme with a low of -2.7 degrees recorded in June.

Perth's longest cold spell in a century!

Perth is experiencing its 12th consecutive day of minimum temperatures below 5 degrees, making it its longest cold spell in at least 100 years! At 0.3 degrees, this morning's temperature fell just 1 degree short of the all-time record of -0.7 degrees. Perth's suburbs did drop to sub-zero lows with Jandakot shivering in -1.4 degrees this morning.

Chilly mornings and nights will continue over Tuesday and Wednesday, but a strong cold front on Thursday will bring a mass of cloud that will keep minimum temperatures to a more bearable 7-8 degrees from Thursday to Sunday. But this powerful front is also poised to deliver severe weather with damaging winds, thunderstorms and heavy rain to the southwest, including Perth.

Further north, unseasonal rain is drenching the Kimberley, Pilbara and northern Interior. This is supposed to be the dry season, but in the last 24 hours a northwest cloudband has delivered 51mm to Marble Bar (4 times its July monthly average), 54mm for Telfer and 36mm for Port Hedland (3 times its July monthly average). As this rain moves eastwards, it's also soaking Alice Springs, with inland QLD next in line.

Nation freezes in cold snap!

Setting foot outside this week has felt like walking into a freezer across most of the country. Records tumbled as as cities and towns across NSW including Bourke got down to as low as -4 degrees. Meanwhile Sydneysiders experienced their coldest June morning in 61 years! But with widespread cloud cover across the country today, it's now maximum temperatures that are sending shivers from Alice Springs to Sydney. Yesterday, Alice Springs only reached 9 degrees which is 10 degrees below the July maximum average and their coldest day for any month in 2 years! Today, day-time temperatures across cloud-covered QLD and NSW will be as much as 7 degrees below average with Charlesville heading for a chilly 13 degrees and Bourke going for a maximum of only 12 degrees. Melbourne is also icy cold as it heads for its 5th day in a row below 13 degrees- its longest cold spell in 14 years. Temperatures will remain bitterly cold into the weekend so rug up or head to Cairns or Darwin where its a much balmier 28-32 degrees!