Millions of Australians will shiver through the coldest night of the year so far, following on from sub-zero temperatures on a particularly frosty Saturday morning in parts of the country.
A huge cold front is blasting its way up into southeastern parts of Australia this weekend, which is seeing temperatures drop to near or below freezing, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
BOM senior meteorologist Jonathan How said most of southeastern NSW and northern Victoria had “seen their coldest morning of the year so far” including Sydney, which woke up to a chilly 11.8 degrees early on Saturday morning.
“Other places like Badgerys Creek and Camden got down to 5C, and even colder temperatures were recorded inland. Canberra had its first morning below zero at -2C and Goldburn got to -4C,” Mr How said.
“A couple of other places inland across NSW also got down close to or below zero, so a very cold start to the weekend,” he said.
“The upside of that is that it means we are going to have a sunny and really lovely day.”
Temperatures are expected to drop again overnight on Saturday, especially in Victoria where Melbourne is expected to endure a “cloudy and cold” weekend.
“We are expecting temperatures to get down to pretty close to what they were last night, but in some places even colder,” Mr How said.
“Melbourne tonight will have its coldest night of the year so far, dropping down to 5 degrees in the city.”
Hobart is also expected to have a frosty night on Saturday, with a low of 4C expected.
While most of the nation will be dry and sunny across the weekend, some wet weather will hit the tropical north, parts of inland Queensland and Western Australia.
Flood warnings are in place for Birdsville, Roseberth Station and Glengyle with showers and thunderstorms forecast across the Eyre Creek and upper parts of the Diamantina River catchments in western Queensland.
Gale force winds are expected to hit southern parts of Western Australia across the Leeuwin and Albany coast on Friday with strong winds travelling further north to Perth.
Rain is expected to fall in Perth overnight but should clear by Saturday morning and push its way north to Geraldton by the afternoon.
BOM meteorologist Angus Hines said there was a chance of showers and thunderstorms across the northwest and northern parts of the country.
“So Darwin right through to the east coast and down to about Tenant Creek,” he said.
“We are still in the midst of those wet season conditions which have been coming and going this week.
“We might see a little bit of rainfall across the northern parts of the Kimberley, but it should be dry elsewhere.”
