Brisbane’s coldest start to winter since 1904 as cold snap sends temperatures plummeting across southern Queensland

A brutal cold snap still has parts of Queensland feeling like -0.2C at 9.30am as Brisbane endures its coldest start to winter in more than a century.

Natasha Innes

2 min read

June 8, 2022 - 9:58AM

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Parts of southern Queensland were still shivering at 9.30am as a brutal polar blast has Brisbane enduring its coldest start to winter in more than a century.

Applethorpe on the Granite Belt was 6.8C at 9.30am, but it felt like -0.2C. Meanwhile, Toowoomba was shivering through an actual temperature of 8.8C though it felt like 1.2C.

Kingaroy was the coldest place in Queensland earlier this morning, with the temperature sitting at a chilly -0.2C at 5.30am.

Brisbane had only got to 14.7C by 9.40am, with the daytime maximum unlikely to exceed 17C today.

The city’s temperatures have not dropped so low so early in winter for more than a century.

Minimums of just 6-8C are forecast for the remainder of the week – temperatures not seen this early in winter in the city since 1904.

At 5.40am Wednesday, it was 7C at the Brisbane Airport but felt like 2.1C.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Helen Reid said she expected Brisbane to this week come close to breaking its June record for cold temperatures, which was 5C set on June 28, 2002.

Polar blast settled over the southeast states of Australia. Picture: Weatherzone

“Brisbane reached a minimum of 8.6C last night … but with the dry air we could possibly drop another degree,” Ms Reid said.

“Tomorrow we’re expecting the minimums to drop to 7C, and 6C on Friday night”.

It felt far colder across the Darling Downs, with Toowoomba’s apparent temperature dropping to -1.5C.

Subzero conditions also gripped Applethorpe, where it felt -0.3C at 5.40am, Dalby (-1.4C), Oakey (-1.2C) and Warwick (-1.4C).

The “conveyor belt of cold fronts” is being caused by a stubborn low pressure system over the Tasman Sea that is driving a polar blast into Australia’s eastern states.

South East Queensland’s coldest places at 6am were Amberley, which dropped to 2.7C but felt like -0.1C, Greenbank, which shivered at 2.8C but felt like 1.2C, and Canungra where the actual temperature was 3.4C but it felt like 1.6C.