Australian Weather

21 Jun 2025, 6:16AM UTC

If you woke up early in NSW or the ACT this Saturday morning and thought it was colder than usual, you'd be right. Just look at some of these temperature observations across parts of NSW and the ACT:  Image: Temperature observations in degrees Celsius at 7:10am AEST, Saturday, June 21, 2025.   In some places, it was even colder than one of Australia's Antarctic research stations.  "Well, that’s a bold claim," we hear you say. "Where’s your proof?" Well, dear readers, look no further than a comparison between the minimum temperatures at Goulburn, NSW, and Davis Station, Antarctica. Goulburn shivered through a bone-chilling –10.0°C this morning, which you can actually see in the image above, well exceeding Davis Station's minimum of –8.4°C. This was Goulburn's coldest morning in eight years and its coldest June morning in a quarter of a century.   Not to be outdone, Cooma also left Davis Station out in the cold, reaching a minimum of –8.6°C just after sunrise today.   Even our nation's capital gave Davis Station a run for its money. Canberra reached a frigid –7.6°C just before 6am, only 0.8°C shy of reaching Davis Station's minimum. This was Canberra's coldest morning in eight years and its coldest June morning in 39 years.   And if you're wondering whether the nation's capital was the only place in the ACT to see temperatures below freezing, then look no further than Tuggeranong, which recorded its coldest morning since July 2018 with a minimum temperature of –7.5°C. This was also the town's coldest June morning in 25 years.  Joining the “Coldest Morning in Eight Years” Club was Condobolin, NSW, which dropped to an icy –5.5°C. Not only was this the town's coldest morning of any month in several years, it was also its coldest June morning in 27 years.  Elsewhere in NSW, minimum temperatures of note include:  Forbes (–5.5°C) - coldest morning since July 2018 and coldest June morning in 27 years   Cowra (–3.1°C) – coldest June morning in a decade  Temora (–4.1°C) – coldest June morning in seven years  Young (–4.3°C) – coldest June morning in six years  Fowlers Gap (–0.7°C) – coldest June morning in five years  Penrith (1.1°C), Braidwood (–6.6°C) – coldest morning since July 2023    The reason for these especially cold temperatures? A high pressure system centred over southeast Australia, together with near-cloudless skies and a cold, particularly dry air mass aloft. You can see the combination of these factors in the image below, with the dryness of the air mass represented by dew point temperatures at 850hPa (approximately 1500m aloft) ranging from red (colder than –8°C) to brown (colder than –16°C) to purple (colder than –32°C) to white (colder than –40°C). For those unfamiliar with the principle of dew point temperatures, the dew point is the temperature at which air will become saturated with moisture and condense into dew; the lower the dew point, the drier the air is.   Image: Forecast mean sea level pressure, 850 hPa dew point temperature, and total cloud cover at 7am Saturday, June 21, 2025, according to the ECMWF model.  The high pressure system and dry air mass responsible for these freezing temperatures will begin to shift east during Sunday, although the chances of seeing temperatures below freezing will remain quite high for some areas, as can be seen below.  Image: Forecast minimum temperature for Sunday, June 22, 2025, according to the ECMWF model.  Minimum temperatures will warm most significantly from Tuesday as a strong cold front brings increasing cloud cover to NSW and the ACT. However, maximum temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday could be extremely cold, with the potential for blizzard conditions over the Australian Alps, and gusty, damaging winds over Vic, NSW and the ACT. So keep an eye on your local forecast and make sure to rug up in the days ahead! 

20 Jun 2025, 4:17AM UTC

The Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice will occur this weekend, marking Australia's shortest day of the year based on sunlight hours. This year’s winter solstice for the Southern Hemisphere will occur at 12:42pm AEST on Saturday, June 21. On the date of the winter solstice, the Southern Hemisphere will reach its furthest tilt or inclination away from the Sun. This will cause Saturday to have the year’s shortest amount of time between sunrise and sunset for everywhere south of the equator (excluding the polar region to the south of the Antarctic Circle, which will remain dark all day). Image: The orientation of Earth relative to the Sun on the date of the winter solstice. The solstice and the seasons The winter solstice marks a tipping point in the Sun-Earth orientation that is associated with a seasonal transition on Earth. Prior to the winter solstice, days have been progressively getting shorter for the past six months as the Southern Hemisphere gradually become more inclined away from the Sun. This trend of shortening days and lengthening nights is what causes the transition from summer to winter. Following the winter solstice, the Southern Hemisphere gradually becomes more inclined towards the Sun. This trend causes days to get longer and nights to become shorter for the next six months, driving the slow transition from winter back to summer. Image: Sunrise, sunset and day length for Australia’s capital cities on the winter solstice in 2025. Some countries base their seasons off the dates of the solstices and equinoxes, while others use calendar months to define season dates. In Australia, the coldest time of the year typically occurs a few weeks after the winter solstice due to the insulating effect of the oceans surrounding the continent. This makes it fitting to use the three-month period of June, July and August to define winter for most of Australia.   Image: You can check the times for 'first light' and 'last light' in the Daily Forecast for your area on the Weatherzone app.