Cairns Airport registered its lowest August temperature since 1953 on Friday morning.

Clear skies, dry air and light west southwesterly winds allowed the mercury to plummet in Cairns on Thursday night.

Early on Friday morning, the temperature dipped to a low of 8.9 degrees at Cairns Airport. This was the site's lowest August temperature in 66 years.

Image: Clear skies at sunrise caused low minimum temperatures in parts of northern Queensland on Friday morning.

In the city, a weather station at Cairns Racecourse recorded a low of 7.9 degrees shortly after 6am on Friday. This was also the lowest August temperature since the site started collecting data in 2013.

The lowest temperature on record in Cairns during August was 6.2 degrees in 1919. This observation was taken at an old Post Office weather station, which closed in 1953.