​Australia's Having A Properly Cold Weekend As Temperatures Plummet

Ah, Australia. Tropical rainforests, stretches of scorching desert, sunny beaches - right?

Well, actually, no - it has four distinct seasons, and one of those is winter. Contrary to popular belief, Australian winters can be pretty brutal.

This weekend, the East Coast has been shivering through sub-zero temperatures and icy spells.

In Sydney itself, where most people picture half-naked bodies sprawled on Bondi Beach, temperatures have dropped right down to 0.9 degrees celsius. It didn't creep up above 1 degree celsius until after 8am.

That recording came from Penrith, which is admittedly quite far in land towards the Blue Mountains.

Sydney Airport recorded 4.5 degrees celsius, and it only made it to 5.1 degrees at Observatory Hill.

The area was hit with strong westerly wind of 24 kilometres per hour, which brought the temperatures down so low.

Canberra always turns into an ice cube every winter, so it's not surprising that they've recorded the lowest temperature in eastern Australia. They've reported it got to -4.8 degrees celsius, which still didn't creep above freezing point after the sun came out.

Residents in the capital city woke up to fields covered in frost and frozen taps outside.

Some of the temperatures recorded are the lowest since 2010 - Camden, which is south west from Sydney, got to -4.3 degrees celsius overnight.

While most people think of the inner mass of Australia as being a hot desert, that's not always true.

There are ski resorts in south-west New South Wales, getting on towards Melbourne. One of these is Thredbo, which is only meant to hit a maximum of 1 degree celsius all weekend.

Jake Phillips, senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology, told the Daily Mail Australia: "Just about the whole state is cooler than average for this time of year. In some parts of the state it can be five or six degrees below average.

"And it's going to get even colder, with a lot of places set to be six or even eight degrees below average for their minimum temperatures over the weekend."

Even Queensland, which barely bothers with seasons, has been feeling the chill - Brisbane's got right down to five degrees celsius.

The current frosty conditions are a result of a dry air mass moving across Eastern Australia 'clearing out skies and allowing heat to escape at night', 9 News reported.

The cold snap's meant to continue until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Blankets out, everyone.

Topics: Weather, Melbourne, brisbane, Sydney, Australia

Daisy Jackson

Daisy Jackson is a freelance writer, who has previously worked at Shortlist Media and Trinity Mirror. She has written about the Manchester terror attacks and appeared on BBC Five live to discuss the aftermath, as well as interviewing an orthopaedic surgeon in Syria.