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Temperatures across Far North Queensland fell below zero this morning, and the winter cold snap is set to continue.
On the Tablelands between Ravenshoe and Malanda, the mercury dipped well into the negative figures while on the coast, the temperature fell as low as 8°C at Cairns Racecourse and 10°C at the Airport – their coldest in two years.
However further south, Innisfail shivered through its coldest night on record, with a low of 4.7°C.
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“The Innisfail Aerodrome station has been open for six years and it’s the coldest we’ve seen there,” said meteorologist Steve Hadley.
“Before that, we got reports from a different Innisfail station but its coldest was 6.2° in 1984.”
Up on the Tablelands, frost has been widespread.
There are no weather stations in the area, apart from a Queensland Fire and Emergency Services sensor at Ravenshoe, which broke down yesterday.
However, according to photos of temperature gauges sent to Atherton Live Weather, Wondecla got down to –3.6°C.
Beverley Poyner from the Nerada Tea plantation at Malanda told Tropic Now the crop has suffered frost damage.
“It was unexpected shall we say, they told us it would be 6°C, but it would have been down in the negatives,” she said.
“We had a really bad frost in 2018 and this one is not too bad at the moment but this is our first frost of the season.”
Forecaster Steve Hadley has warned of more frost on the Tablelands tonight.
“It’s because of the dry air south and west of Atherton,” he said.
“On the coast, the moisture could be pushed back for milder conditions but for areas to the west it’ll still be really dry there tonight, particularly at elevation.
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The cold conditions are being created by a large high over South Australia and a low pressure system over the Tasman Sea, which is directing a cold, dry airmass over Queensland, right into the tropics.
Tomorrow for the North Tropical Coast and Tablelands the forecast is for overnight temperatures between 3°C and 13°C.
Main points
- Temperatures got as low as –3.6°C on the Atherton Tablelands, according to one resident's gauge
- On the coast, the mercury dipped to 8°C in Cairns and 4.7°C in Innisfail – its lowest on record
- Widespread frosts have been reported from Ravenshoe to Malanda
