Large areas of eastern Australia just endured their coldest morning so far this year, with Qld registering its lowest temperature since 2019.

A wintry mix of snow, hail, rain, blustery winds and large surf lashed Australia’s southeastern states over the last couple of days, under the influence of an unusually cold late-autumn air mass.

While the most intense weather from this system has now passed, lingering cold air produced widespread frost and unseasonably low temperatures across parts of eastern Australia on Tuesday morning.

Image: Modelled minimum temperatures on Tuesday morning, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

In Qld’s Darling Downs district, the mercury dropped to -5.7ºC at Oakey and -5.1ºC at Wellcamp Airport shortly after 6am on Tuesday. The last time Qld saw temperatures this low was in July 2019. This was also Oakey’s coldest May temperature in records dating back to 1973.

Toowoomba’s 0.1ºC on Tuesday morning was its lowest May temperature since 2000, While Brisbane Airport’s 4.4ºC was its coldest May morning in 17 years.

Across the border in NSW and the ACT, Glenn Innes cooled to -7.2ºC and Canberra reached -3.1ºC. This was Canberra’s coldest start in nine months.

Image: Frost and fog in Gungahlin, ACT on Tuesday morning. Source: @nickv2913 / Instagram

A combination of lingering cold air, clear skies and relatively light winds will cause more frost across parts of Australia’s eastern and southeast inland during the next few mornings.