An Australian state known for its year-round sunshine has been hit by freezing temperatures after a cold snap swept through the region, breaking records along the way.
Temperatures plummeted in Queensland, with the lowest temperature at Brisbane Airport overnight on Monday hitting 6.3°C.
Tropical areas were also hit by the cold snap: Townsville in the north hit 8.6C, while Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast hit just 3.7C.
Residents in inland areas of the southern Sunshine State shivered in sub-zero temperatures.
Oakey, near Toowoomba, recorded the coldest morning across the state since May last year, when temperatures dipped to a low of -4.4C at 6.30am.
More than 80 Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) sites recorded temperatures lower than Melbourne, where the weather is often cold and cloudy during winter.
Senior meteorologist Harry Clark told Daily Mail Australia that a mass of dry air across the state has brought on the cold weather.
Temperatures plummeted in Queensland, with the minimum temperature at Brisbane Airport overnight on Monday reaching just 6.3°C (file image)
It was warmer in Melbourne on Monday morning than in many parts of Queensland.
“That heat can radiate quite efficiently into the atmosphere, so certainly the last few nights have been quite cold across much of Queensland,” Clark said.
He added that temperatures in Melbourne are slightly warmer due to cloud cover which has created more humid conditions.
The Victorian capital recorded a low of 9.9C, more than three degrees warmer than Brisbane Airport.
Mr Clark said the weather would begin to warm up in Queensland on Thursday with above average temperatures expected by the end of the working week.
“Tomorrow it will be cold again in central and southern areas in particular, and frost is expected again inland,” he said.
Brisbane is expected to see lows of below -10C on Tuesday and Wednesday, before rising to 13C on Thursday.
The minimum temperature in Townsville is expected to rise to 10°C on Tuesday before rising to a low of 14°C on Wednesday.
Mr Clark said the cold snap was not unusual for this time of year, but added that several weather records had been broken as a result of the freezing conditions.
“In Winton (in central Queensland) the temperature dropped to 0.6C on Saturday morning, the coldest temperature we have recorded there in 22 years,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Clark said a cold front will move towards the southern parts of Australia’s east coast.
Conditions will be very windy in Melbourne on Wednesday with showers expected on Thursday and over parts of the weekend.
Elsewhere in Australia, Sydney will experience a chilly start to the day on Tuesday and Wednesday before temperatures rise on Wednesday.
One or two showers are expected in the port city on Friday and the weekend is expected to be mostly clear.
Parts of south-east Queensland will wake up to cold temperatures for a second morning in a row on Tuesday
Brisbane
Tuesday: Sunny. Chance of morning frost in the west. Light winds.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy. Chance of morning fog in the west. Light winds.
Sydney
Tuesday: Sunny. Light winds.
Wednesday: Sunny. Chance of morning fog in the far west. Chance of morning frost in the far west. Light winds.
Melbourne
Tuesday: Mostly sunny. North winds at 25 to 35 km/h increasing to 25 to 40 km/h in the afternoon.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy. Winds from the north at 35 to 50 km/h.
Melbourne is forecast to experience very windy conditions over the next two days with wind gusts reaching up to 50km/h (file image)
Hobart
Tuesday: Partly cloudy. Chance of light rain, most likely in the morning. Northwest winds at 15 to 25 km/h, shifting to the north at 15 to 20 km/h in the late afternoon.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny. Winds from the north at 15 to 25 km/h.
Adelaide
Tuesday: Mostly sunny. Winds from the north at 15 to 25 km/h.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny tomorrow. Medium chance of showers, more likely overnight. Winds from the north at 25 to 35 km/h, becoming northwest at 25 to 30 km/h late in the night.
ACT
Tuesday: Frost and chance of fog in the morning. Mostly sunny afternoon. Light northwest winds at 15 to 20 km/h early in the afternoon and light in the late afternoon.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny. Some frost and chance of fog in the morning. Light northwest winds at 15 to 25 km/h at noon and light in the afternoon.
Perth
Tuesday: Cloudy. Very high chance of showers, most likely in the morning and early afternoon. Chance of a thunderstorm in the morning and early afternoon, possibly severe. Northwest winds at 20 to 30 km/h, shifting to the south at 15 to 25 km/h early in the morning.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny tomorrow. High chance of showers, more likely in the afternoon and evening. Light winds.
Darwin
Tuesday: Sunny. Winds from the east to the southeast at 15 to 25 km/h, becoming east to northeast at 15 to 20 km/h in the early afternoon and then northwest to northeast in the late afternoon.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny. Light winds becoming north to northeast at 15 to 20 km/h in the early afternoon and then becoming light in the late afternoon.
There is a high chance of showers in Perth on Tuesday and Wednesday with wind gusts of 25 km/h on Tuesday.
