Freedom is great, but if there's one thing that makes it even better, it's the combination of freedom and sunshine, or at least freedom plus weather that actually entices you to leave the house.

Sadly, after 107 days of lockdown, Sydney's weather has not come to the freedom party. "Freezing Day" is a more accurate description of conditions in Australia's largest city this Monday.

• As we write this story just after 4 pm, the temperature is sitting on 13.6°C, with a highest reading so far today of 14.4°C just after 2 pm.
• If things don't get any warmer (and they may not), this will be the coldest October day since 2008.
• It's already certain to be the coldest day so far this month by a good seven degrees or so. The previous coldest maximum for October 2021 to date was 22.6°C last Tuesday, October 5.
• The average daily max for Sydney to date in October 2021 is 25.6°C.
• The average daily max for Sydney historically in October is 22.2°C. So each of the 10 days this month before today was higher than the average!

Image: Sydney is cloudy and showery today with southerly winds in the wake of a strong cool change that passed through on Sunday.

As you can see from the image above, temperature is only part of the reason why Sydney's weatehr is less than ideal today. Intermittent showers are also falling, and while the rain is not as heavy as it was on Sunday when downpours lashed many suburbs, it's a soaking drizzle that is absolutely no fun.

And while "absolutely no fun" may not be a standard piece of meteorological terminology, we stand by this decription – epecially on a day when people who live a long way from the beach are free to go there for the first time in nearly four months.

Never mind. Warmer weather in the low to mid twenties will be grace the city by the end of the week, though the sad news is that on-and-off showers will persist for much of the week.