Territorians wake to freezing conditions as mercury plunges

Territorians woke to chilly conditions with the mercury plunging

Ross Park Primary School staff captured images of icicles on the trees during a chilly morning where the mercury dipped to 1.4C overnight in Alice Springs Picture: Ross Park Primary School

Territorians woke to chilly conditions with the mercury plunging overnight.

Middle Point just east of Darwin broke its record with a minimum of 4.8C.

The previous record was set August 13, 2012 when the temperature dipped to 5C.

Darwinites were blasted with a frosty 12.7C overnight, the coldest night since June 14, 2011.

Darwin’s record of 12.5C on July 27 2008 still stands.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Sally Cutter said the low temperatures were a result of cool air making its way from the south.

“We’ve had some cold air come in and it hass been quite dry and that allows the heat to escape more efficiently,” she said.

Ross Park Primary School staff captured images of icicles on the trees during a chilly morning where the mercury dipped to 1.4C overnight in Alice Springs Picture: Ross Park Primary School

She said the overnight minimum temperatures in Darwin would warm up by the weekend, hovering around 20C.

Students at Ross Park Primary School will this morning head into the classroom with icicles hanging from the trees.

The unusual sight was captured by staff at the school.

At 7am Alice Springs residents got ready for work in a teeth chattering 1.4C.