Jess Miskelly, 22 Jul 2017, 2:43 AM UTC
Dry winter exacerbated by frost over growing regions
Winter has made itself felt in recent days over the southeastern inland but not in the form of rain bearing cold fronts.
Overnight/early morning temperatures across a large swathe of agricultural land from Bendigo to Moree to Richmond to Albury have been 5 to 10 degrees below average for the last couple of days. Forbes and Cessnock had their coldest morning in more than 10 years on Saturday with -5 and -4 degrees respectively, while the Canberra and Goulburn regions had another sub -7 degree start to the day.
The accompanying frost will be having a drying effect on plants already dealing with a lack of rain. Typical rain producing cold fronts have been lacking so far this winter and 1 to 3 month rainfall totals across inland NSW and VIC are very much below average - Forbes had its driest June since 1944, and is so far running at the driest July since 1885 with only a week to go.
Thankfully, in terms of frost, there will be a warming trend over coming days as the atmosphere becomes a little more humid and a high pressure ridge over the east weakens. In terms of rain for the inland though, there’s still nothing on the immediate horizon. Mid next week has early indications of bringing a strong cold front and associated low pressure system (a good set-up for southeast inland rain) to break the dry. Though, more than a 10 days in advance, nothing is certain.
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