Sydney cold winter weather arrives as temperatures drop below zero
Lucy Cormack -May 30, 2016
The cold weather has finally hit Sydney. Photo: Brendan Esposito
Winter has arrived, bringing with it a Monday morning of cold weather records and frost for Sydney.
Lows of 7.3 degrees in the city heralded the coldest May morning in the city since 1999, while Richmond woke to its coldest May morning since 1987 at -1.7 degrees.
Weatherzone meteorologist Rob Sharpe said that Monday would be the coldest morning of the week, thanks to some cold fronts that moved through in the past seven days.
"An air mass moving across NSW dropped temperatures, so we had much colder air in the region," he said.
"Last night we also had clear skies and light westerly winds. Those light westerly winds have allowed temperatures to become cold."
Monday was also the coldest May morning in Penrith for at least 20 years, at just 2 degrees.
Mr Sharpe said the start to the week brought the third frost of the season, typical when "temperatures at the recording station record 2 degrees or less."
From Tuesday morning, the city can expect warmer minimums of about 11 degrees, while Richmond will still be substantially colder at minimums of 6 degrees.
"The eastern parts of Sydney are likely to get a large number of showers across Tuesday and Wednesday. Western Sydney will see fewer showers, but everywhere in Sydney will get something," Mr Sharpe said.
"Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday look to be the wettest, but rain is possible on every day ... more moisture in the air keeps temperatures up."
Mr Sharpe said most of Australia was likely to have a wetter than usual winter and spring.
Weatherzone is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of this website.