Hang on to those winter woollies

THE mercury is expected to drop below the monthly average in Cairns again this week as the city experiences its coldest September mornings in about three years.

Cairns Airport got down to 14.2 degrees yesterday morning, about five degrees below the September average.

This follows a low of 14.1 recorded on September 4 – the coldest morning in three years.

“It’s not all that common, you don’t get it every year temperatures in September getting down to 14 degrees,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Adam Blazak said.

“We had a south easterly change move up the coast over the weekend so not only is it cool, it’s also very dry at the moment and that allows those night temperatures to drop away a little bit.”

The coldest September morning on record for Cairns was in 1948, when temperatures dropped to 11.1 degrees.

Mr Blazak said temperatures should start increasing today before another dip later in the week.

“We do have another cool change moving up into the area by the end of the working week so temperatures again set to dip probably Thursday or Friday morning,” he said.

Despite the cool mornings, temperatures are expected to remain relatively warm throughout the day. A top of 29 degrees is forecast today.