11/04/2012: Sydney has chilled to 10 degrees for the second morning in a row, which makes it the coldest it's been this early in the year in almost 80 years, according to weatherzone.com.au.

The temperature dipped to 10.4 degrees at about six o'clock this morning, which backs up the 10.1 degrees recorded at the same time yesterday. This is the first time since 1933 that the city has got this cold this early in the year on consecutive mornings. In 1933, it was in March when Sydney cooled to 9.7 and 10.1 degrees on two consecutive mornings.

There have been colder April mornings more recently, but at the end of the month. On the last two mornings of the month in 2008, it cooled below nine degrees.

"We've just had two cold fronts move through in less than three days. The first front, on Easter Saturday was relatively week, dropping temperatures about four degrees. But that made the job of the second front much easier and it was strong enough to drop the temperature by a further five or six degrees. This was the strongest front to cross southeastern Australia in April in four years. Normally a front this strong doesn't arrive until May, so it's a few weeks early," Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dustchke said.

All up, both nights and days have cooled by 10 degrees in just two days, from five degrees above average to five below.

This cold change has been so abrupt that in just a few days we've gone from shorts, thongs and zinc cream to beanies, gloves and cardigans.

Walking to work in 10 degrees with added wind chill has been much less pleasant than a Saturday stroll in 28-degree sunshine.

It's been a similar story for most of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, with the most extreme change occurring inland.

Some places have cooled by 30 degrees in less than a week. This includes Wagga Wagga, Parkes, Cobar, Rutherglen, Beechworth and Ouse.

In just four days, Hopetoun in the Victorian Mallee has cooled from a summer-like 35 degrees on Good Friday to a wintry three degrees yesterday morning.

"Looking ahead, the bitterly cold southerly winds will continue to ease during today, although showers will develop on the NSW coast as they turn more onshore. A high pressure system will take over in the next few days, allowing skies to clear and winds to turn warmer easterly. By the end of the week we'll have plenty of sunshine," Dutschke said.

"Next weekend, we will have almost forgotten about the cold as winds become light and temperatures rise above average again, reaching the mid 20s in Sydney."

Media Inquiries:

Brett Dutschke
media@weatherzone.com.au
02 9965 9269

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