Parts of southeast Australia shiver through coldest May mornings on record
Image credit: 9 News Australia/YouTube (stillshot)
Parts of southeast Australia saw record cold temperatures on Sunday and Monday, May 30 and 31, 2021, with many inland areas plunging below freezing temperatures. Temperatures in Melbourne City, Victoria, plunged to 1.7 °C (35 °F)– its coldest May morning for 71 years. Renmark and Adelaide in South Australia also recorded their coldest May morning since 1927, with temperatures dipping to 3.5 °C (38.3 °F).
It was a frosty Sunday across southeast Australia, with temperature records tumbling across the region.
Residents in the city of Melbourne woke up to their coldest May morning for 71 years and 364 days, with the mercury dropping to 1.7 °C (35 °F). The area's coldest ever recorded May morning was -1.1 °C (30 °F) set on May 29, 1916.
In Victoria, Adelaide dipped to 3.5 °C (38.3 °F)– the equal coldest May morning since 1927. Some of the lowest overnight minimums included Mt. Hotham with 6.2 °C (43.2 °F), Yunta with 4.8 °C (40.6 °F), Rutherglen with 4.7 °C (40.5 °F), and Horsham with 4.3 °C (39.7 °F).
Other areas in states such as New South Wales, ACT, and Tasmania also saw their lowest minimums, including 5.2 °C (41.4 °F) at Mount Hope, 4.1 °C (39.4 °F) at Canberra, 3.9 °C (39 °F) at Fingal, and -0.3 °C (31.5 °F) at Launceston.
In South Australia, the town of Renmark recorded its coldest May morning as the mercury dropped to a chilling -5.1 °C (22.8 °F). The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) declared a record-breaking low for the town's airport before 21:00 UTC on Sunday (07:00 LT on Monday).
Early Monday morning, May 31, the towns of Loxton and Lameroo registered below freezing temperatures of -3.5 and -1.1 °C (25.7 and 30 °F), respectively. Near Adelaide, Nuriootpa hit exactly 0 °C (32 °F), while Strathalbyn plummeted to 0.3 °C (31.5 °F).
"Spare a thought for those out in the Riverland, though," meteorologist Tina Donaldson told ABC Radio Adelaide.
The City fell all the way down to 1.7C this morning, that's our coldest May morning in 72 years. 7NEWS meteorologist @JaneBunn with an early look at the weather. pic.twitter.com/TWxrBGBfX9
— 7NEWS Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) May 30, 2021
Melbourne has shivered through its coldest May morning in more than 70 years. @Elisabeth_Moss9 #9News pic.twitter.com/T1HnBGwfw9
— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) May 30, 2021
Published in the last 24 hours
- Forecasters say this winter’s El Niño could reach historic strength, but the last one that big, nicknamed Godzilla in 2015–16, left Los Angeles with about two-thirds of its normal rain while storms pounded the Pacific Northwest Epicenter
- Winds circling the North Pole have slowed sharply this month, the same kind of disruption that in January 2019 split the polar vortex and sent Chicago to minus 23°F, cold enough that rail crews ran flames along the tracks Epicenter
- In April 2014, golden-winged warblers in the mountains of Tennessee, songbirds weighing about as much as four dimes, fled their breeding grounds a day or two before a tornado outbreak and flew hundreds of miles south, while the scientists tracking them sheltered in a Waffle House Epicenter
- After record Nordic heatwave, Swedish researchers to recreate indoor heat to study older adults Epicenter
