australia cold snow 2018 july
In parts, the natural depth of snow that has fallen is beginning to reach around a metre deep.
Australians have been shivering across the country this winter, but a cold air mass combined with clear skies and light winds caused the mercury to really plummet last night.

A slow-moving high pressure system will continue to cause notably cold mornings across much of central, southern and eastern Australia during the next three days, leading to widespread frost and fog each morning until Sunday.

Some southern parts of the Northern Territory and a few places in southwest Queensland had their coldest morning in three to seven years.

After a night of steady cooling, the temperature in Queensland town of Thargomindah dropped to a low of 0.2 degrees just before 7am today - the site's coldest morning since 2012.

snow man australia july 2018
Nearby, Ballera Gas Field's 1.6 degrees was also its lowest temperature in seven years.

Across the border, it was the coldest morning in three years for the Northern Territory's Jervois, which recorded a low of -0.2 degrees and Daly Waters felt a chilly 3.9 degrees.

This morning's frosty start comes a day after some areas of NSW registered their lowest temperature in more than a decade yesterday.

A low of -2.6 degrees at Fowlers Gap was its coldest start since 2006.

The cold temperatures has also seen the natural snow depth in Australia's alps getting close to one metre in some areas.

Snowy Hydro reported a natural snow depth of 94.7cm at Spencers Creek on today, which is a 19cm increase from last week and a new high point for 2018.

Based on historical records stretching back to the 1950s, the average snow depth at Spencers Creek in the middle of July is around one metre.

The earliest date that a measurement above one metre has been recorded at Spencers Creek was 148.8cm on May 9th 1960.

At the other end of the scale however, the 2006 and 1982 snow seasons didn't feature any readings above one metre at the site.

The peak snow depth in Australia's alps typically occurs in late August or early September, although it can vary quite a bit from year to year.

The peak depth during 2017 was in late September and in 2016 it didn't happen until October.

Looking ahead, a pool of cold air will cause light snow showers in the alps tomorrow, before dry weather returns on the weekend.

A pair of cold fronts are also likely to bring follow-up snowfalls at the start of next week, possible nudging the natural base above one metre for the first time this season.