Australia's southeast will be given a chance to thaw out during the next couple of mornings following a string of frosty starts. The change in weather will even bring a few showers to parched parts of the Murray Darling Basin and some alpine snow. A combination of clear skies and light winds underneath high pressure systems have helped overnight temperatures plummet so far this week. Minimum temperatures dipped as much as six to seven degrees below average in central and southern NSW between Sunday and Wednesday. Similar anomalies have also occurred in Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia this week. This morning was the coldest in two years for Saint George (-0.1C) in Queensland, Perisher (-11.6C) in NSW, Mount Hotham (-8.2C) in Victoria and Wynyard (-2.3C) and Dennes Point (2C) in Tasmania. Impressively, Perisher's -11.6 degrees this morning was the coldest temperature recorded anywhere in Australia for two years, while Mount Hotham's -8.2 degrees was a 10 year low for the site during July. Canberra has seen its fair share of cold mornings in recent weeks as well. As of today, the capital city has registered 32 mornings at or below zero degrees since the start of June. This is well above the long-term average of 19-20 mornings up to this point in the season. The spate of frosty starts in the nation's southeast recently has coincided with a spell of notably dry weather for parts of the Murray Darling Basin. Large parts of western New South Wales have received less than 10 per cent of their monthly average rainfall during the first 12 days of July, with many rain gauges recording less than 1mm so far this month. By contrast, parts of southern NSW and northern Victoria have seen healthier falls from cold fronts this month. As of 9am today, Tocumwal (38mm) and Corowa (52mm) in NSW had both picked up more than 90 per cent of their average July rainfall, while Victoria's Rutherglen (48mm) and Mount Buller (122mm) had received 70 to 80 per cent of their typical July totals. Looking ahead, minimums will be a bit warmer at the end of this week thanks to an increase in wind and cloud associated with an approaching cold front. This system will bring a burst of showers and alpine snow as it crosses the southeast on Thursday and Friday.