Winter chill in the air for the tropical north
FAR Northern residents are being told to prepare for “unusually cold” conditions over the coming days as temperatures approach record lows.
A string of “unusual weather events” has swept across the region this week, including significant rainfall for the first time this year.
Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Shane Kennedy said the rain was expected to intensify again today before easing tomorrow.
More than 40mm is expected in some areas, along with the chance of a thunderstorm.
“From Sunday, the cloud band is expected to push offshore quite quickly and things will fine up on Sunday morning,” Mr Kennedy said.
“It will still be relatively cool, but it should be the end of the rainfall for several days.”
A cold snap is also expected to stick around, with an “unusually cold day” tipped for Cairns today.
“We were forecasting a maximum of 21C (today) so it’s not quite a record … in May (20.5C), but it’s certainly approaching that,” Mr Kennedy said. “It will be unusually cold (today) before slowly warming up later next week.
“It is a bit of an unusual combination of events in not only is there colder and drier air pushing up all the way from southern Australia and into the tropics, but with that cloud band on top of it, that really is restricting that surface heating in the afternoon
“So that’s making unusually cold afternoon temperatures, particularly with all that rain around.”
The mercury will drop even further next week, with an overnight minimum of 14C forecast for Cairns on Monday and Tuesday.
“The average minimum temperature for Cairns is 20C, so it’s a good five to six degrees below average there,” Mr Kennedy said.
“Even the maximum average for Cairns is 28, so it will be considerably colder (today) and then remaining at least a couple of degrees below average for several days next week.”
Mr Kennedy said frost was also possible on the Atherton Tablelands on Monday morning, with the potential for temperatures to drop to 3C.