Cold Canberra: August 2014 - coldest mornings for 43 years

Canberra’s winter weather leaves people breathless – especially in the morning. Temperatures plummeted to minus 7 degrees. On Tuesday August 5, the morning temperature recorded minus 7.6 degrees, the coldest August in 20 years. With four consecutive nights of temperatures ranging from minus 6 to minus 7.6 degrees, this is a first for Canberra (Canberra Times, August 7, 2014).

Since records began at the Bureau of Meteorology, Canberra has not recorded four consecutive nights below minus 6 degrees since 1971 (43 years ago). Three consecutive nights below minus 6 degrees was recorded in 1994. The cold mornings are set to continue for the next few days. With it is extremely dry air.

Frost also presented a challenge for many, especially early morning golfers.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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