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Coldest morning in years for parts of SE Australia

Icy temperatures sent shivers across southeastern Australia on Thursday morning, with some places registering their coldest morning in years and Queensland registering its first 0°C of 2025.

A combination of clear skies, light winds and lingering cold, dry air in the wake of a front provided the ideal conditions for temperatures to plummet across Australia’s southeast on Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

Image: Satellite image showing clear skies over southeastern Australia shortly after sunrise on Thursday morning.

Temperatures reached 0°C or lower in six states and territories early on Thursday, with the following locations registering the lowest temperatures in each one:

• -6.9°C at Thredbo, NSW
• -6.0°C at Mount Hotham, Vic
• -4.6°C at Canberra, ACT
• -4.3°C at Cressy, Tas
• -2.3°C at Loxton, SA
• 0.0°C at Oakey, Qld

Despite only being the first week of winter, some places had their coldest morning in several years.

Ballarat’s -4.4°C was the Vic city’s lowest temperature in 10 years and its coldest June morning since 1996. Wangaratta (-4.7°C) and Hay (-4.8°C) also had their coldest morning in 8 years.

Image: Frost in Boodua, Qld on Thursday morning. Source: Charmaine Campbell.

Image: Frost in Ballarat, Vic on Thursday, June 5, 2025. Source: @enduringdomain / Instagram

Canberra (-4.6°C), Sydney (8.3°C) and Brisbane (11.3°C) all had their coldest morning so far this year. In Sydney, the cold and dry air combined with fresh winds to make the temperature feel like 1°C between 6am and 8am on Thursday. While this was a teeth-chattering chill for Sydneysiders, it was almost balmy compared to Canberra’s feels like temperature of -8°C at 7:30am.

Image: Modelled minimum temperature on Thursday morning.

Friday will be another cold and frosty morning in southeastern Australia as mostly clear and calm conditions persist under a high pressure ridge. However, temperatures won’t be quite as cold as Thursday morning.

A series of cold fronts will then bring more cold air, showers and snow to southeastern Australia over the King’s Birthday long weekend. This barrage of wintry weather means that some of the areas that saw frost on Thursday morning will be covered with snow over the weekend.