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Canberra endures coldest run of nights in 60 years

Temperatures have plummeted to bone-chilling lows in Canberra over the past week, with the city just registering its coldest run of nights since 1965.

While freezing nights are typical in Canberra at this time of year, last week’s minimum temperatures were unusually frigid even by local standards. This strong of frosty nights was caused by the combined influences of a dry air mass, clear skies and light winds, which collectively caused the ideal conditions for intense overnight cooling in the ACT during the past week.

Image: Satellite image showing clear sky over the ACT shortly after sunrise on Sunday morning.

Every night between Tuesday and Sunday last week (not including Sunday night) saw minimum temperatures dropping lower than -5°C in Canberra.

These were the official daily minimum temperatures recorded in the 24 hours ending at 9am local time each morning:

• Wednesday: -5.1°C
• Thursday: -5.5°C
• Friday: -7.2°C
• Saturday: -7.6°C
• Sunday: -7.5°C

The last time Canberra had five consecutive nights below -5°C was in 1965. It has also been 8 years since the city had three nights in a row below -7°C.

Sunday night into Monday morning brought an end to Canberra’s run of minimum temperatures below -5°C, with the city ‘only’ cooling to -4.1°C.

Increasing cloud cover and rain will lift the overnight temperature more substantially on Monday night into Tuesday morning, with a minimum temperature of 5 to 6°C predicted in the city.

This respite will be short-lived though. Canberra’s minimum temperatures are forecast to return to about -3°C by Thursday and Friday mornings.