Minimum temperatures varied by nearly 30 degrees between parts of WA and SA on Thursday morning.

Despite being adjacent states, the combined land mass of WA and SA is large enough to separate two distinct climate zones and cause a large range in temperature.

Wednesday morning's minimum temperatures dropped below zero degrees in parts of SA, including minus 0.8 degrees at Gluepot and minus 0.3 degrees at Padthaway. This was Padthaway's lowest temperature this early in the year in 32 years.

But while parts of SA were shivering, temperatures were oppressively high in WA's Pilbara. Wednesday morning's minimum temperatures were as high as 28.4 degrees at Onslow and 28 degrees at Karratha. Meekathurra's low of 27.9 degrees was its highest April minimum in more than 90 years of records, beating the previous record by more than a degree.

Large temperature ranges across the Australian continent are common at this time of year. The country's vast size has been known to produce temperature ranges of more than 50 degrees on the same day.