‘Winter is edging ever closer’: Longest stretch of cold May nights for Sydney in 54 years
Sydneysiders have experienced an out of the ordinary run of cold May nights not felt since 1967.
Wednesday night marked the fifth consecutive night this month with a minimum temperature of 9 degrees or less.
Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Helen Reid said this last occurred in 1967, starting on May 26 that year and reaching a sixth night, through to the morning of the first day of winter on June 1.
She said the cooler temperatures were not unusual for Sydney this time of year but “it’s unusual in the sense that it’s a prolonged period”.
“What is out of the ordinary is that many [cooler] nights at once,” Ms Reid said. “The ridge of high pressure has been stable for such a long time and it hasn’t had any other movement of air to displace it.”
Between 5.30am and 7.30am on Wednesday, Sydney’s Observatory Hill recorded a low of 8.6 degrees, the temperature in Penrith dipped to 3.9 degrees and it was 0.7 degrees at Camden, south-west of the CBD. Richmond had a minimum of 1.9 degrees while it was 4.1 degrees in Canterbury.
Ms Reid said the bureau is not expecting the stretch of cool nights to continue as cloud cover and shower activity rolls in over the next week.
“That’s going to be the end of the cool nights for a little while for Sydney,” she said.
Sydney city is forecast to experience minimum temperatures between 12 and 14 degrees and maximum temperatures in the low 20s.
However, a significant cold front will move through the state from the middle of next week, bringing snow to lower levels on Wednesday and Thursday.
“A taste that winter is edging ever closer,” Ms Reid said.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
