Parts of QLD and NSW just shivered through their coldest November morning in decades at the tail end of a polar air mass that blasted Australia during the last 72 hours.

A pool of cold air combined with clear skies and light winds caused abnormally low November minimum temperatures across a large area of eastern Australia on Wednesday night.

Some places had their coldest November morning in decades. In Western Sydney, Penrith’s low of 6.8ºC early on Thursday was its lowest November temperature in records dating back to 1995.

Tamworth Airport dipped to a chilly 2.9ºC shortly after 6am on Thursday, which was its coldest November morning in records going back to 1957.

North of the border, Toowoomba plunged to 5.6ºC early Thursday morning, making this its coldest November morning since 1971.

Numerous towns and cities from central Qld down to central NSW registered their lowest November temperatures since 2006 early on Thursday morning.

Sydney’s Observatory Hill dipped to 11.1ºC on both Thursday and Wednesday mornings this week. This was the city’s lowest individual November minimum temperature since 2006 and its coldest pair of November mornings since 1998.

Further north, Newcastle (10.2ºC), Armidale (0.7ºC), Byron Bay (12.8ºC) Brisbane Airport (10.1ºC), Rockhampton (12.7ºC) and Charleville (6.8Cº) all had their coldest November morning since 2006 on Thursday.

Thursday's unseasonably cold start came off the back of a powerful cold front that dragged a large mass of polar air over southeastern Australia earlier this week.

Video: Himawari-8 enhanced water vapour satellite imagery over the last couple of days.

This week’s burst of wintry weather system also caused heavy alpine snow and rare November avalanches in southeastern Australia.

Temperatures will gradually warm up over the next few days as the cold air mass moves out to the Tasman Sea and more typical late-spring weather returns to southeastern and eastern Australia.