Many of Australia's mining communities have seemingly responded to Sunday's carbon tax announcement with the shivers, but this is actually a result of the coldest weather in decades. Not even the act of mining itself was enough to warm some communities to 10 degrees. Leinster, in Western Australia's Goldfields, was one of the first to respond, by struggling to 10 degrees on Sunday and Monday, their coldest days in 18 years. The news must have had a delayed effect in South Australia, where it took until Tuesday for Leigh Creek to begin its cold spell. It failed to reach 10 degrees on this and the next day, the coal mining town's coldest two-day spell in at least 30 years. On Wednesday, Broken Hill couldn't even reach nine degrees, making it their coldest day in eight years. Also on Wednesday it was the coldest day in 16 years in White Cliffs with a 10-degree maximum, and coldest in five years in Ballera, in southwest Queensland, where it only got to 13. The reason for this cold outbreak was dense cloud, a result of moisture coming off warmer-than-normal Indian Ocean waters. This cloud is now clearing from the interior, allowing day-time temperatures to return to near-normal.