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Perth chilling through coldest July nights in 14 years

Perth residents are enduring their coldest July nights since 1998 with an average overnight low of only five degrees.

It has now cooled below five degrees on 16 nights this month, eight more nights than the long-term monthly average.

Last night it chilled below two degrees for the fourth night in the past week, dipping to 1.6 degrees, six degrees below the monthly average.

There have been very few mild nights this month, mainly due to high pressure systems spending a lot of time over the Bight. These highs are keeping skies mostly clear over the west coast, keeping rain away and enabling all but six nights to cool below average.

It has stayed above 10 degrees on only three nights so far, the fewest number in July since 1998, when there were two. Typically in July there are about 11 nights this warm.

Looking ahead, there are a few more cold nights to come, but they will gradually become warmer. It may even stay above five degrees on Sunday night and above 10 degrees on Monday night.

Regardless of these few warmer nights ahead, it will still turn out to be Perth's coldest July in 14 years, regarding overnight lows.

Some rain should arrive early next week, but it may be too late to stop this July being the city's driest on record. So far only 28mm has fallen, more than 100mm short of the previous five Julys and 142mm short of the long-term average. The previous driest July was in 1876, when 61.5mm fell.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2012

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