Cold shock to the system
Cairns experiences coldest day of the year as Tablelands frost over
JESSICA Wood, of Holloways Beach, (left) is delighted to be able to wear flannelette pyjamas and enjoy a bowl of warm popcorn as overnight temperatures fell to a low of 8.6 degrees on Tuesday. Another chill was forecast last night but temperatures were expected to rise to a minimum 16 degrees and getting warmer for the rest of the week.
THE cold snap felt by the Far North throughout the week is expected to come to an end.
Cairns experienced its coldest day of the year yesterday, dropping to single-digit temperatures for the second time with a nippy 8.6C at the racecourse.
This isn’t too far off from the coldest temperature ever recorded in Cairns, 6.2C on June 23 in 1946.
Throughout the Far North, residents were rugging up as the Bureau of Meteorology recorded chilly temperatures across the region.
Innisfail recorded temperatures as low 11C, Mareeba got down to 10.2C, South Johnstone recorded 8.8C and Ravenshoe recorded 8.4C.
Bureau forecaster Michael Paech said today temperatures would start to return to normal as extra moisture from onshore winds begin to flow back into the region.
“The really cold dry air we had pushing the minimums down is still around, so there’s an outside chance of getting some colder temperatures up in the elevated areas,” he said.
“Don’t expect anything of the level we got earlier in the week to come back for at least another week.”
Mareeba resident Beth Derrick Hatchman said she woke up yesterday morning to find frost on her yard for the first time in more than eight years.
“My husband went out to feed the dogs and saw it on the yard,” she said.
“We look for it every time we get a cold snap, but we had one two or three weeks ago and didn’t get any then, so it came as a surprise.
“Luckily it melted away once the sun came up.”
Mrs Hatchman said they reported temperatures of 4C on their patio when they found the frosted grass at 7am.
According to the bureau, frost-fall around the Tablelands wasn’t as severe as the last cold snap from two weeks ago.
“Some isolated hollows up around the Tablelands would have felt some light frost patches, with a chance of that happening again, though with less of a chance compared to before,” Mr Paech said.
Forecasts are calling for Cairns minimums to return to 16C today, just below the June average of 18C.