It's the first day of spring, but you wouldn't know it in a town that has "spring" as part of its name.

The iconic NT outback town of Alice Springs has been colder than all of the Australian capital cities all afternoon as rain stopped the temperature warming during the heat of the day.

At midday, the Alice was sitting on just 10.8°C, while in the other capitals:

• Darwin was 30.3°C at midday
• Brisbane was 22.4°C at midday
• Perth was 19.6°C at midday
• Sydney was 17°C at midday
• Canberra was 16.0°C at midday
• Adelaide was 14.3°C at midday
• Melbourne was 14.1°C at midday
• Hobart was 10.3°C at midday

So as you can see, only Hobart was colder at miday (and by just half a degree) while Alice Springs was indeed colder than all the mainland capitals.

There was also an interesting sight on the radar for keen weather-watchers. As mentioned, it's not often that Alice Springs is colder than the mainland capitals, but it's perhaps rarer to see the largest green rain blob on the national Weatherzone radar sitting directly over the centre of the country.

As mentioned, the rain was large part of the reason for the cold afternoon temps in Alice Springs, as thick cloud prevented sunlight from heating the surface, while cool southwesterly winds (which later swung around to blow from the southeast) also played a role.

Alice Springs will warm up a little in coming days as the rain dissipates but coolish air for this time of year will stick around, with top temps falling short of 20°C by at least a couple of degrees until the new week. The September average max is 27.4°C.

Meanwhile, with the rain overnight and today, Alice Springs has thus far accumulated 17.2 mm from this event – a welcome change after a totally dry July and August. Indeed, this is the first rain since June 4.