A cold front that blew up out of Antarctica lingered across southern Australia continuing to set cold for the date records throughout mid-September, reported ABC News on September 16.
“Adelaide has shivered through its coldest September morning in a century with several South Australian towns dipping below zero degrees Celsius,” said ABC News. “Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Simon Timcke told ABC Radio Adelaide the city experienced 1.3C at 5:39am on Tuesday.
“Pretty significant because it’s a very long record there, we’ve been measuring temperatures there for 100 years or so,” Timcke said.
Areas outside of Adelaide recorded temperatures that were as cold and even colder. Below freezing temperatures were recorded in Renmark -1.9℃, Cummins, Lameroo, Loxton, and Snowtown each saw temperatures dip to -1.8℃, Parafield’s temperatures dipped to -0.2℃. Mount Lofty and Noarlunga saw their temperatures stay just above freezing at 1.6℃ and 3.5℃, above freezing but still well below their normal lows for this time of year.
Wine grape growers in the region are reporting that the unusually cold temperatures and the frost that accompanied it have already caused some crop losses.