The recent cold and wet weather affecting southern parts of the Northern Territory has brought some record breaking cold. Alice Springs Airport reached a balmy 21 degrees on Friday, just under average for this time of year. By sunrise on Saturday the mercury had dipped to 8.4 degrees, about average. Residents would have realised something was afoot by midday when the temperature had risen a miserly 0.2 degrees to 8.6. In the early afternoon Alice Springs recorded its maximum at 9.6 degrees, its coldest May day since records began in 1942. Not only cold for May as Saturday, as it was also the 18th coldest day ever recorded. The cause was a combination of a few environmental factors as well as impeccable timing. Thick cloud had moved through overnight, ready to deflect the suns warming rays. Then just before sunrise, rain began to fall, which had a huge cooling effect. At 3am it was 14 degrees. By 9am and after some persistent rain for over four hours, it had fallen below 9. This cooling effect is a direct result of the initial rain vigorously evaporating in the very dry interior air. The cloud then did its job, allowing for one of the coldest recorded days in Alice Springs.