The crocs were surely wearing socks, and whatever other warm items they could find, as Darwin copped an overnight taste of the southern winter chill.

The mercury in the NT capital plummeted to a decidedly subtropical 13.4°C at 7:19 am local time, which was:

• The lowest temperature in any month since 2019
• The chilliest July temp since 2008
• Almost six degrees below the average July minimum of 19.3°C
• The coldest temp to date in 2023 by a margin of 2.5°C
• The "feels like" or apparent temperature was even worse, dropping below 9°C for at least an hour

Why the Top End taste of winter?

It's all to do with the position of the high pressure system which is currently dominating weather virtually right across Australia.

Here's a screen grab from the Weatherzone home page taken early on Tuesday. These are NOT the min temps for all cities, but we happened to capture this when Darwin’s temp had bottomed out.

As you can see, air circulating anti-clockwise around the high brought warmer air and relatively mild overnight temps in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Hobart.

Canberra was its usual chilly self overnight (it got down to -4°C) while Sydney was also quite cool under the influence of southerlies. That cool dry air from the south then did a big loop of the country, affecting temperatures all the way up the Darwin.

Numerous locations across the Northern Territory also experienced a cold night, including:

• Jabiru had a minimum of 11°C, its coldest July night in 38 years
• With a minimum of 16.6°C, it was the coldest July night in 25 years (and coldest in any month for 10 years) in Warruwi, a small mostly Indigenous community on South Goulburn Island off Arnhem land, where min temperature extremes are moderated by the Arafura Sea
• Batchelor Airport, an hour south of Darwin, had a low of 7.8°C, its lowest in any month for 14 years

As for the rest of the day in Darwin, the forecast is for a top of just 26°C, which would be well below the July average maximum of 30.7°C. Keep your socks on, crocs.

Temps should remain lowish by both day and night by Top End standards until normal transmission resumes from Friday onwards with high temps in the low-to-mid thirties and overnight lows above 20°C extending into the weekend and early next week.