Polar air blast to send southern Queensland temperatures plummeting

A sharp, brutal blast of polar air will hit southern Queensland in coming days, pushing temperatures down to just 3C.

Queensland temperatures are set to plummet as a polar cold front driven by an Antarctic vortex surges north.

Thursday is shaping as the coldest day of the year so far, with Applethorpe in the state’s south to drop to just 3C in the morning.

It won’t be much warmer in Oakey, west of Toowoomba, which will drop to 4C, while it could get as low as 7C in Brisbane.

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A blast of polar air when send temperatures plummeting across Australia's southeast, including southern Queensland. Picture: Windy

Ipswich will be the coldest place in the southeast, with a minimum of 3C forecast for Thursday, climbing to 6C on Friday.

“It will be a wintry welcome to winter, that’s for sure,” Helen Reid from the Bureau of Meteorology said.

“The other big news is that the sun is still out. We’re still not used to seeing that.”

Overnight, it got down to 6.4C in Applethorpe – though it felt more like 5.5C – while it was 7C across most other parts of the Darling Downs.

It could get down to 3C in southern Queensland next week.

While it was 14.4C in Brisbane overnight, Ms Reid said temperatures would continue to drop into next week.

“We will have less moisture in the air and less cloud cover, both of which let the temperatures really cool off overnight and get those low morning temperatures,” Ms Reid said

“The days will also be colder, it won’t just be nights. Winter will finally be here.”

The colder weather coincides with the official start of winter on Wednesday.