Australia shivers through its coldest morning of the year after temperatures plunge overnight and Sydney drops to ZERO
- Coldest day so far in 2019 as temperatures plunge across south and east coast
- Parts of New South Wales dropped to 0C while Canberra saw -2C on Thursday
- The cold is being driven by polar air moving in from the Southern Ocean
Australians are enduring the coldest morning of the year after temperatures on the south and eastern coastlines plunged overnight.
Polar air moving in from the Southern Ocean has brought the coldest day of the year for Melbourne (5C), Sydney (6C), Canberra (-2C) and Hobart (3C) and experts have predicted it could be the coldest day of the year so far for those cities.
Areas just outside Sydney, including Richmond (0.7C) and Camden (0.0C), dropped to zero degrees on Thursday morning.
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Australians are enduring the coldest morning of the year after temperatures on the south and eastern coastlines plunged overnight
Parts of New South Wales recorded temperatures as low as -4.6C in Orange while those in the Snowy Mountains will feel the cold the most, where temperatures will drop to an icy -7C in Cooma, well below the -1.3C minimum average for June.
Widespread frost was forecast for much of NSW on Thursday morning and is expected to extend into Friday morning.
'Large parts of inland NSW will be sub-zero over the next few nights,' Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecaster Rob Taggart told Daily Mail Australia.
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'It's due to a high pressure system across south-eastern Australia that's not moving very fast.'
Meanwhile in Melbourne it was 5C just prior to dawn and is expected to reach a maximum of just 11C as a frost warning was issued by BOM.
The most affected regions include Mallee, Wimmera, Northern Country, North East, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland with temperatures getting down to -3C in these areas.
Parts of New South Wales recorded temperatures as low as -4.6C in Orange while those in the Snowy Mountains will feel the cold the most, where temperatures will drop to an icy -7C in Cooma, well below the -1.3C minimum average for June
Widespread frost was forecast for much of NSW on Thursday morning and is expected to extend into Friday morning
The below average temperatures are expected to stick around until Sunday as three busts of polar air move in from the Southern Ocean.
'The first of many cold mornings to come over the next week over most of Victoria and Melbourne as a high pressure system to the west moves slowly east. Away from Alpine areas the lowest temperatures were -2C at Edenhope, Castlemaine, Mangalore and Redesdale,' BOM Victoria tweeted.
Temperatures are forecast to drop even further with Albury-Wodonga on the NSW/Victorian border expected to plummet to -4C.
'Inland Victoria will see a series of frosty night's and sub-zero temperatures until early next week,' BOM senior forecaster Rob Dickson told Daily Mail Australia.
'The coldest of those night will be next Monday night, particularly for large parts of northern Victoria.'
The below average temperatures are expected to stick around until Sunday as three busts of polar air move in from the Southern Ocean
Melburnians will feel the worst of the chill over the weekend, where overnight temperatures will drop to 5C to Saturday, 4C on Sunday and just 2C on Monday.
A frost warning is also in place for South Australia on Thursday morning after the temperature dropped down to -2C in Renmark and Yunta and -1C in Coonawarra and Naracoorte.
Adelaide is expected to drop as low as low as 5C after reaching a top of 13 earlier in the day, the same maximum forecast for Thursday.
Forecasts also indicate temperatures will continue to drop to minus five degrees in parts of central NSW and close to minus 10 in the higher parts of the southern ranges before the end of the week.
The NSW snowfields have welcomed the freezing temperatures which have created perfect conditions for snow making at Perisher.
'The slow-moving ridge will also direct south to south easterly winds onto the NSW coast during the coming days, allowing showers to develop east of the ranges,' an Elders Weather statement read.
'These showers will increase along the coast and adjacent ranges during the weekend and early next week, as winds turn more onshore.
'Some areas along the central and northern coastal fringes could see more than 50mm by next Wednesday, although rainfall totals will drop off as you head inland.'
The NSW snowfields have welcomed the freezing temperatures which have created perfect conditions for snow making at Perisher.
