It’s been a super chilly one overnight in large parts of Australia, with cold, dry, relatively still air across much of the country creating perfect conditions for widespread frosts.

Indeed, sub-zero temperatures were recorded in seven of the eight Australian states and territories.

Canberra had its lowest temperature of the year, with a minimum of -6°C just before 7 am. The year’s previous coldest morning was -4.5°C on June 15, and for those who love records, the national capital’s coldest recorded temp was -10°C in July 1971.

Australia’s coldest overnight temps were all in the mountains and tablelands in southern NSW near Canberra, with the mercury bottoming out at -8.1°C at Cooma Airport.

But even low-lying NSW towns in the state’s north and west experienced an extreme chill overnight, with a low of –3.1°C at Cobar, near Bourke (the coldest on record there was -6.7°C in July 1997).

Image: Frosty start in Mandurama, NSW on Tuesday morning. Source: @kangarooflatlavenderfarm / Instagram

The lowest overnight minimum by state was:

Victoria

Mt Hotham -6.4°C

New South Wales

Cooma Airport -8.1°C

ACT

Canberra Airport -6°C

Queensland

Applethorpe -2.6°C

South Australia

Gluepot -4.0°C

Tasmania

Liawenee -2.5°C

Western Australia

Collie East -0.1 -2.5°C

Northern Territory

Yulara 5.1°C

It’s worth noting that while the Northern Territory was the only state or territory where no locations dropped below freezing, sub-zero temps happen quite a lot, and we actually wrote a story about how cold (both max and min) temperatures can get in the NT last week.

Meanwhile it looks like another cold and frosty one for a good chunk of inland Australia tonight, before overnight temps start to moderate later in the week with the influx of moist air from the east.